


Cell Dates

by TheCrusaderKing



Series: Confessions [2]
Category: Amphibia (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Anne ain't having it though, By which I mean everything will be fine and nothing will hurt ever, Conflict, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Girls Kissing, Hurt/Comfort, Imprisonment, Kissing, Manipulation, Marcy doesn't get paid enough to put up with them, Multi, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Romance, Sasha Getting Flustered, Sasha confidently making terrible life choices, Sasha is emotionally all over the place, Teen Romance, The poor decisions of teenagers, Toxic Behavior, Unreliable Narrator, feel like that last tag is important, she and Marcy are doing their best, things are gonna get worse before they get better, you can trust me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26633743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrusaderKing/pseuds/TheCrusaderKing
Summary: After the events of Confessions, Anne, Marcy, and Sasha are now dating, even as the latter remains locked in a cell due to her part in Grime's rebellion. Unfortunately, Sasha is far from redeemed, and their new relationship shall be sorely tested as they attempt to address the heartaches of the past and carve out a future together amidst the difficulties they all face going forward...
Relationships: Anne Boonchuy/Marcy Wu, Anne Boonchuy/Sasha Waybright, Anne Boonchuy/Sasha Waybright/Marcy Wu, Sasha Waybright/Marcy Wu
Series: Confessions [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933876
Comments: 93
Kudos: 201





	1. United

**Marcy**

On a lazy afternoon, after a busy morning of searching the library for clues related to the calamity box, Marcy Wu sat next to her girlfriend, Anne Boonchuy, on the uncomfortable cobblestone floor just outside one of the many cells to be found in the Palace of King Andrias. What made this particular cell the object of such interest to the two girls, was the simple fact that it contained their _other_ girlfriend, one Sasha Waybright.

_‘Wow. This all seems pretty dang weird now that I’m thinking about it.’_ Marcy thought to her herself, conscious of how other people would see them for what they were doing. They hadn’t even told anyone of their new relationship with Sasha, worried that they would be judged for it. Marcy knew that Anne in particular had been stressing at the idea of telling her adopted frog family, the Plantars. Marcy hadn’t told anyone either, not wanting the king or Lady Olivia to know that she was _fraternizing_ in that way with someone who was, for all intents and purposes, an enemy of the state.

It had been a few days since each girl had independently confessed their love to Sasha, only to find out about the other and, after some panic, decide to try a polyamorous relationship. As far as Marcy could tell, it was going pretty well. At least, as well as it _could_ go when the object of their mutual affection was locked behind bars.

Marcy was broken out of those thoughts as Sasha laughed loudly at a story Anne was telling about her time in Amphibia. _“Wait.”_ The blonde interjected. ”So not only did you go camping when you _hate_ everything to do with that stuff, you then proceeded to go with some total stranger to an _even worse_ campsite, where you were then attacked by _killer, cannibal frogs.”_ She could barely get through the words before bursting into laughter again.

“It’s not _that_ funny.” Anne grumbled, though Marcy could see her lips twitch ever so slightly upwards. “I almost died.”

“It’s pretty funny.” Sasha insisted, her mirth finally dying down.

Just then, a mischievous thought popped into Marcy’s head. “Y’know…” She began. “That’s not even the only time she got attacked by cannibal frogs.”

Anne whipped around to stare at her in shock. “Traitor!” She gasped, but it was too late, as Marcy’s words set Sasha off again.

_“Ho-_ _How are you still alive?”_ The blonde questioned as her laughter turned into giggles and she finally got herself under control. She smirked. “That’s such an _Anne_ thing to do too.” 

“Wha- what does _that_ mean?!” Anne cried, leaning back on her arms.

“You know… _I’m Anne! I’m gonna go on this super awful camping trip because I can’t stand the thought of people having fun without me!”_ Sasha mimicked, rather poorly if Marcy was any judge.

“I do not sound like that!” Anne insisted, though a huff of laughter escaped her lips, betraying her amusement.

Marcy nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I’m gonna have to go with Anne on this one Sash. Your impressions could use some work.”

Sasha just scoffed. “There you guys go, ganging up on me again.” Her tone was genial, but the underlying subtext of that statement made Marcy distinctly uncomfortable. Anne laughed nervously next to her, and she knew the other girl felt the same way.

The blonde watched them for a few moments, a smile slowly growing on her face, until she finally chuckled at their discomfort. _“God,_ you guys, I’m _joking._ You guys can be so… _Stupid.”_

From anyone else, such a term would have been insulting, but Sasha said it with such fondness that Marcy couldn’t help but smile. “Careful Sasha.” She warned playfully. “Your soft side is showing.”

“And who’re you calling stupid?” Anne shot back, clearly not willing to let the matter rest. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but _we_ weren’t the ones who charged into a super obvious trap. That was all _you.”_

“It was _not_ obvious!” Sasha said defensively. _“Excuse me_ for not expecting Marcy to do something as ridiculous as _using a video game_ to come up with a defense plan! Not to mention I had to fight _both of you!_ That was super unfair!”

“Guess you just couldn’t handle our teamwork.” Anne proclaimed proudly, pulling Marcy into a hug with one arm. Marcy just giggled, allowing herself to be pressed into Anne’s side as the girl’s arm wrapped around her shoulders. Leaning over, she planted a kiss on Anne’s cheek, and the Thai-American blushed brightly, a weak giggle leaving her lips as she gazed down at Marcy.

Anne wasn’t the only one caught off guard by Marcy’s kiss. Staring at them blankly, a blush lit up Sasha’s pale face.

From her place against Anne’s shoulder, Marcy could see as the other girl wiggle her eyebrows in Sasha’s direction. “What’s the matter Sash? Feeling a little _jelly?_ I could always give _you_ a kiss if it’ll make you feel better.” Anne offered with a smirk. _‘Heh, she probably thinks she’s being soooo smooth right now…’_

Sasha took a moment to respond, clearly stunned by their display of affection. Finally, she seemed to gather herself, schooling her features into a carefully disaffected look that didn’t fool Marcy for a second. _“As if.”_ She scoffed. “And you are _not_ kissing me through the bars.”

“Why not?” Anne questioned with a frown.

_“Be-Because it’s undignified!”_ Sasha spluttered, like it was _obvious._ “I’m not just gonna stick my face through the bars!”

Personally, Marcy wasn’t sure they could claim that _any_ of this was dignified, considering how unusual their circumstances were. “No offence Sasha, but… You’re in prison. I think dignity is pretty much out the window at this point.”

Glowering, Sasha didn’t respond for a moment. Finally, she smiled, the kind of smile that Marcy and Anne knew very well. It was a smile that meant Sasha had come up with an idea, probably one that would get them all in trouble.

“Y’know… You could just let me outta here for a bit… Then we could do _all the kissing you guys want.”_

Marcy felt her cheeks heat up, but Anne just sat up, crossing her arms. “We’ve talked about this Sash. You’re not getting out of there until you stop being stubborn and agree to work with us. No exceptions.”

“Since when do _you_ care so much about _the rules?”_ Sasha scoffed, rolling her eyes. “We used to sneak out all the time back home.”

Anne’s face twisted in anger, surprising Marcy. “In case you haven’t noticed, this is kinda different from back home Sasha! Plus, it was _you_ who always made me sneak out in the first place! You can’t just force me to do stuff and then act all surprised when I don’t wanna do it anymore! Maybe you just need to learn that people aren’t always just gonna do what _you_ want them to do! You can get out of here and be with us at anytime, just as soon as you-”

“I’m _not_ betraying Captain Grime.” Sasha stated harshly, glaring at Anne with angry eyes. Anne glared back, not backing down.

Wanting to end this little spat, and also not wanting all her time with Sasha to be filtered through metal bars, Marcy thought hard about possible solutions to this problem. Finally, an idea popped into her head, and she grinned. “Guys! I got it!” She proclaimed loudly as she jumped up, earning surprised looks from both her girlfriends as she interrupted their little staring contest.

“Just stay here, I’ll be right back!” Marcy shouted over her shoulder as she rushed for the door, eager to put her plan into action.

As she ran down the hall, she skipped over the loose cobblestone that had tripped her up when she originally confessed to Sasha, doing a little fist pump as she did. _‘Yes! Not this time!’_

She pushed open the door, slamming it behind her as she made for the guard’s office at the end of the hallway. As she lunged forwards, eager to get back to her girls as soon as possible, she found herself being yanked back, a terrible ripping sound filling the air as she landed hard on her butt.

Groaning, Marcy looked back to her cloak stuck in the doorway, nearly torn in half. _‘Dang it…’_

* * *

**Sasha**

“So…” Sasha started as Marcy disappeared through the door, a faint thud following a moment later. “Any idea what she’s so worked up about?”

Anne just shrugged, and they settled into an uncomfortable silence. Sasha didn’t really know what to say now that their argument had been cut short by Marcy’s sudden and unexplained departure.

Finally, Anne found the courage to speak up. “I'm sorry about-”

“Apology accepted.” Sasha said quickly, glad that Anne had seen the error of her ways.

_“_ You didn’t let me finish!” Anne had a slight glare on her face, that faded as she gave a deep sigh. “I’m _not_ sorry about what I said, cuz you _need_ to hear that junk, but… I _guess_ I could’ve said it in a nicer way. I’m sorry about that.”

Sasha stared at her for a moment, various conflicting feelings bouncing around her chest. Finally, she gave her own sigh. “I… _I’m…_ I shouldn’t have said what I said either.” Sasha offered lamely, unable to bring herself to say that one particular word. “I know you can’t let me out, and… I shouldn’t have pushed the issue.” She forced the words out, her very soul crying out against the idea of admitting fault, of _showing weakness._ A frown creased her face as she thought of what Anne had said. “Did… Were you really _that_ unhappy when we snuck out together?”

Her frien- _girlfriend,_ Sasha reminded herself, looked conflicted for a moment. “I mean… I _liked_ spending time with you, it’s just… I don’t like disappointing my parents. I even missed the birthday party they were planning because you wouldn’t let me leave!” Anne pointed out.

Wincing, Sasha was struck by the memories of that day. As much as she tried to avoid thinking of the circumstances that had led them here, Sasha was acutely aware that it was _her_ fault they had all been brought to this strange world. It was why she had tried so hard to get them home...

“I just wanted to make your birthday special…” She whispered.

Anne smiled softly. “It would’ve been plenty special if you’d just came to the party.” 

Sasha didn’t know what to say to that, and so they fell back into silence, though it was much more genial than before. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of the door bursting open, and they both jumped at the noise. Anne gazed down the hall, a look of confusion growing on her face. Sasha couldn’t see what Anne saw from where she was, and so she had to wait slightly longer to find out what had her so puzzled. Faintly, Sasha could hear the sound of footsteps, too numerous to be one person...

Soon Marcy came into view, looking oddly pleased with herself about something. Just as Sasha suspected, she wasn’t alone.

A newt guard trailed behind Marcy, and Sasha narrowed her eyes, knowing it was the same guard who had refused to speak a word to her through all of her time in prison. Anne stood up to receive them, and Sasha followed suit, not quite understanding what was going on.

“Guys, I figured out a solution!” Marcy revealed eagerly, though Sasha had no idea what she was talking about. _‘Solution? To what? There’s no way she got them to release me…’_

“I have no idea what you mean, or who this guy is, but you’re probably gonna tell us, huh Marsh?” Anne said in a dissonantly cheerful tone.

“You better believe it Annabanana!” Marcy replied, grinning as she gestured to the newt behind her like some mad inventor revealing her latest invention. “This is Harold!” The guard raised his hand in greeting, though with his face hidden beneath a hood, Sasha couldn’t tell how he felt about being shown off like some prize animal.

“Uh, yeah.” Sasha’s tone was dry. “We’ve met.”

Anne waved awkwardly. “Hi, Harold…” She greeted, trailing off as the newt remained dead silent.

“He doesn’t talk much.” Marcy explained. _“But_ we do spar on occasion, and he trusts me, so… I was able to convince him to lock us in the cell with Sasha!”

_“What?!”_ Sasha and Anne cried in unison, eyes wide.

“It’s perfect!” Marcy enthused, oblivious to their shock. “We can spend time with Sasha, _and_ nobody has to worry about her escaping!”

“I’m right here Marcy.” Sasha groused, starting to understand what the other girl was getting at. Ideally, she would rather be free, but if she was being honest to herself, spending time with her two girlfriends in enclosed quarters didn’t really seem like the _worst_ thing in the world... 

Her thought process trailed off as Harold unlocked the cell door with a key pulled from his sleeve, and Marcy all but dragged Anne inside with her.

As the guard locked the door once more, Sasha’s eyes were drawn to Marcy’s cloak, or rather, what was left of it. It looked like something had yanked on it harshly, tearing it nearly in half. Though still technically in one piece, the lower half was dragging slightly on the floor, and Sasha knew that Marcy would inevitably end up tripping if she didn’t get it fixed or replaced. Marcy was clumsy like that.

They watched Harold leave, Marcy waving goodbye as he disappeared down the hallway. A moment later, Sasha heard the door open, and then close again with a _creak._

With him gone, Marcy took a step back from the cell door and, just as Sasha had expected, her foot caught on the edge of her cloak, sending her stumbling backwards with a yelp, swinging her arms wildly like some demented bird. What Sasha _hadn’t_ expected, was that she was in the path of Marcy’s fall. 

It turns out that spending weeks sitting around in a dungeon with nothing to do, _tends_ to dull your reflexes. Who would’ve guessed?

Marcy crashed into Sasha, sending them toppling to the ground in a heap. Luckily, Sasha had the presence of mind to lean forwards, just managing to avoid cracking her skull open against the back wall of the cell. The impact of rough stone against Sasha's tailbone sent a shock up her spine as all the air was forced from her lungs. Groaning, Sasha laid still for a few moments, ignoring Anne’s panicked words as she felt Marcy’s weight atop her.

Faintly, Sasha was aware that Anne was standing over them, asking if they were okay, but that wasn’t her focus at the moment. What currently occupied her mind, was the thought that Marcy was _really warm._ The other girl didn’t really weigh that much, and Sasha could barely suppress a sigh at how _strangely comforting_ that weight felt. Marcy’s head was pressed just under her chin, her black hair tickling at Sasha’s throat as she groaned from the fall. It was surprisingly nice to have Marcy on top of her like this.

She’d never admit it to _anyone,_ but Sasha had definitely missed the feeling of human contact. The last time she’d had anything like this was when she’d found Anne, and _that_ experience was unfortunately tainted by what had come after. Having someone pressed against her like this was something she’d never realized she could miss so much.

Before Sasha could do something ridiculously sappy like wrap her arms around Marcy or smell her hair like a creep, the other girl started wriggling, twisting around until she was facing Sasha, and the blonde could stare into her eyes.

For a moment, they just stared at each other, Sasha trying not to show how much she was freaking out about _how close their faces were,_ when suddenly, Marcy shifted closer, now fully in Sasha’s lap.

Without any warning at all, Marcy pressed her lips to Sasha’s, causing warmth to bloom through the blonde’s face as she screamed internally at how _soft_ Marcy’s lips were, and how _gentle_ her kiss was, like Marcy could never in a million years hurt her. Just as Sasha thought that _maybe_ she should try kissing back, the other girl pulled away.

Marcy studied her face with careful eyes, while Sasha could only stare blankly back, still lost in a daze.

Unfortunately, her girlfriend seemed to take her silence the wrong way, eyes going wide as she started to panic. _“I am so, so sorry!”_ Marcy warbled. _“I just, I looked into your eyes, and I thought it was fine, but, I mean, I guess I misread the situation?! I’m reeaaally sorry, I…”_

Trying to pull herself together enough to reassure Marcy that it was _fine,_ that she _enjoyed it,_ Sasha was just cognizant enough to notice Anne sitting down next to her, a smirk on her face as she lounged against the wall, almost close enough to brush Sasha’s arm. “It’s fine Marcy. I think you just caught her off-guard. Looks to me like she _really_ enjoyed that…”

Anne snickered as Sasha’s eyes drifted over her smug face. _“Wow_ Sash. For someone who acts all tough and confident all the time, you _really_ don’t have any game, huh?” She turned her eyes to Marcy. “Hey Marsh, why don’t we show her how you’re _supposed_ to kiss your girlfriend?” Before Marcy could offer any kind of protest or response, Anne was pulling her in for a kiss, and her eyes shut tightly as she leaned into it, the two of them hovering over Sasha.

Normally, Sasha would’ve been furious at such obvious mockery from Anne, but her brain was currently occupied with other, much more important things. Like the fact that her two girlfriends were practically making out on top of her. Yeah, that was much more interesting.

Sasha’s mouth was hanging open as she watched them. Her entire face felt like it was on fire, and she couldn’t decide if she was in heaven or hell.

_‘Hell, definitely hell.’_ She decided when Marcy made a squeaking noise into Anne’s mouth. This certainly felt like torment, seeing her girlfriends kissing each other while she was almost helpless to do anything but watch. Honestly, hell might have been preferable to this sort of torture.

Finally, her girlfriends broke apart, lips separating with a slight _pop_ that made Sasha blush even harder, if that was even possible at this point. Marcy looked about as messed up as Sasha felt, blush covering her cheeks as she blinked mindlessly, almost chasing after Anne’s lips as she pulled away. Anne was blushing herself, but she had a look of smug self-satisfaction on her face as she panted heavily.

She turned that look to Sasha and opened her mouth to speak. No doubt she had some snarky comment prepared, but Sasha wasn’t interested in hearing it. No, the blonde girl was officially _done_ with sitting around while the thing she wanted more than anything was staring her right in the face. Just as Anne’s lips formed the first syllable, Sasha reached up, gripping the collar of her school uniform and pulling her down into a kiss of their own.

Anne’s lips were _warm,_ and slightly puffy from her kiss with Marcy. Sasha was immediately addicted. Her kiss was rough, lips greedy and possessive as she all but claimed Anne as her own, trying to show the other girl exactly how she had felt watching her and Marcy together.

Unfortunately, biological necessity meant that she needed air to survive, and so Sasha had to break the kiss, panting against Anne’s mouth as they parted.

Anne finally looked how Sasha felt, her cheeks red, and her eyes unfocused as she stared into Sasha’s own, breathing like she’d just run a marathon. Sasha grinned. “What were you saying about me not having game?”

Blinking in incomprehension, Anne visibly struggled to pull herself together. “I, uh… What game are we playing?”

Laughing, Sasha wrapped her arm around Anne, pulling her into her shoulder as her other arm pulled Marcy against her chest, not willing to let either of them go when she was still so pumped up from kissing. “Mine…” She murmured happily against Marcy’s neck, wondering if this is what it felt like to be drunk.

Marcy started struggling ever so slightly against her grip, and Sasha reluctantly loosened it, though she didn’t let go completely. Now they were face to face again, and Marcy grinned nervously at her. “So… Mind if we try again?” Her innocent smile, mixed with her heavy blush, did… _things_ to Sasha’s heart. Without a word, she leaned in, and Marcy followed suit.

The kiss was just as amazing as Anne’s had been. It wasn’t as wild, or greedy, but it still made Sasha’s stomach flutter. To her surprise though, Marcy soon pulled away.

Without a hint of explanation, Marcy started pressing kisses to Sasha’s face, not that she would complain about it. Her nose, her brow, her chin, all got smooches from Marcy’s questing lips. As they neared her cheek however, Marcy stopped, brow crinkling in… Concern?

Sasha’s girlfriend brought her hand up, a single finger tracing along her cheek, just under her eye. “I never noticed you had a _scar_ before.” She murmured, squinting at it, like she was offended by the very notion of Sasha getting hurt. “When did that happen?”

Marcy’s touch felt like electricity, but her words were like being drenched in freezing water. Sasha knew Anne hadn’t told Marcy much about what had happened between them at the tower, and she _really_ did not want to have this conversation right now. Looking over to Anne, she saw that her lips were curled nervously, her teeth bared, indicating that she was just as uncomfortable with this line of questioning as Sasha was. Looking back at Marcy, the girl had a look of shocked understanding as her gaze shifted between them. Sasha felt sick at that moment, not knowing how Marcy would react, but too much of a realist to think it would be very pleasant.

To her surprise however, Marcy just placed a kiss over the thin white mark. “Well, however it happened. I think it looks pretty cool…” She offered with a slightly nervous smile.

Sasha just stared at her, but before she could say anything, Anne was adding her own two cents. “Yeah!” She agreed, her cheer only _slightly_ forced as far as Sasha could tell. “It makes you look like a _total badass._ I mean, you were already a badass, but now, you look it!”

The blonde couldn’t help but snicker in disbelief at the both of them, grateful for their attempts to make things less awkward. “You two are _such_ dorks.” She muttered with a smile.

Anne just slung an arm around her shoulder. “Who’s the greater dork?” She questioned in a faux-intellectual tone. “The dorks? Or the dork who loves them?” Sasha gasped in mock offense and tried to pull away, but quickly settled back into Anne’s embrace when she wouldn’t let go, while Marcy wrapped her arms loosely around her neck.

For a few minutes, they simply remained like that, as Sasha processed all that had just happened. There was just something undeniably _right_ about this moment, with the two girls she loved more than anything wrapped safely in her arms, Anne with her head against her shoulder, and Marcy in her lap. Sure it was dampened slightly by the fact that it was happening in a prison cell, but Sasha had grown so used to strange situations in her time in Amphibia that it didn’t really bother her like it probably should’ve. 

_‘I really love them…’_ Sasha realized.

She had denied it when they first decided to become… _this._ Then, she had thought it made her weak, that her feelings towards Anne and Marcy, whether as friends or as _girlfriends,_ could be used against her if they ended up fighting again. Now though, she knew the truth. Sasha had never felt more strong than she did in that moment, like she could do absolutely _anything._

“You, uh… You gonna let go anytime soon?” Anne questioned suddenly, amusement in her tone. Marcy giggled into Sasha’s neck.

Sasha just huffed. “I don’t know how long we have until you need to leave. I’m not wasting a single second.” She tightened her grip on both of them to emphasize her point. When Anne didn’t respond, she turned her gaze to check on her.

Though her head was still laying against Sasha’s shoulder, Anne’s eyes were wide with concern. “Uh… Marcy?”

Marcy pulled back from the crook of Sasha’s neck, much to her annoyance. “Yeah?”

“How is Harold supposed to know when we want out? Could he like, hear us yell through the door? Or did you tell him to come back in an hour or something?”

Marcy blinked once… Twice… She tilted her head slightly, red creeping back into her cheeks. “Huh...” She chuckled nervously. “I guess my plan wasn’t _completely_ perfect after all..” Her nervous laughter continued, while Anne looked even more concerned.

Sasha watched them squirm for a moment, wondering if she should say something. Finally, she decided to put them out of their misery. “Don’t worry about it. He’ll be back with my food in like, a couple hours I think? No need to have a heart attack or anything.” She quirked an eyebrow. “I didn’t know being stuck with me was such a terrible fate to you guys.” She smiled to rob her words of any bite. Marcy just smiled back, while Anne gave her a smirk.

“No offense Sash, but we do have lives outside of you.” _‘Unfortunately…’_ Sasha thought to herself. “I don’t exactly mind spending time with you, but the Plantars are definitely gonna be wondering where I was. I am _not_ ready to have that conversation with them.” Anne said with a shudder.

“Not to mention I have to keep looking for information about the calamity box!” Marcy added

_“Fine, whatever.”_ Sasha groaned, pulling them close, determined to enjoy this while she could. She remained silent for a moment, debating her next words… “Hey, guys?” She paused as they both looked at her. “I… I love you. You know that, right?” She’d realized that she’d never said it out loud yet, and she couldn’t stand the thought of them not knowing how much they meant to her.

Marcy pecked her on the nose. “We know, Sasha…” She confirmed. Anne mumbled her agreement against her neck, and Sasha smiled.

They remained silent for a few more moments, but Sasha had something else she really needed to say... “Hey… Marcy?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you get off my lap now? My legs are starting to go numb.”

“Oh, right!”

Marcy shuffled off of Sasha’s legs, moving to her left side as she put her head on the blonde’s shoulder, cuddling into her side. Wordlessly, her hand reached across Sasha to lock with Anne’s own, and Sasha smiled at the sight. 

_‘There. Much better.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my [Tumblr](https://thecrusadercomrade.tumblr.com/) to keep up with progress on all of my fics, interact with me, and see extra content related to my writing, such as deleted scenes!


	2. A Minor Disagreement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fun begins...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I'm back, after so VERY, VERY long! I mean, I've been writing other stories, but it's been a little over two months since the start of Cell Dates, so I'm very excited to be putting this out! Thank you so much to everybody for your patience, I hope it will be worth the wait!
> 
> 2\. This chapter was originally going to be much longer, and cover much more ground, but I decided to chop it up so I could get it out faster. Don't worry, more will be coming soon, hopefully much sooner than it took to get this chapter out.
> 
> 3\. As always, I very much hope you'll enjoy the chapter, and that you'll choose to leave some feedback to feed my ever-growing hunger for validation.

**Sasha**

Two hours.

That was how long Sasha had been slumped against the wall, staring at the lone glow-shroom lighting her cell. At least, that was her best guess. It wasn’t like she had access to her phone or anything else that would allow her to keep track of time. The three meals she was given each day helped, but that gave her a rudimentary understanding at best, and the hours between tended to blur together like blood mixing with wet mud.

It was the morning after Marcy had come up with the admittedly rather simple idea of her and Anne spending time locked in Sasha’s cell with her, and the blonde was already feeling the unfortunate side effects.

The first week of her captivity had passed by relatively quickly, as lonely as it had been. She’d grown used to living in a cell after her less-than-stellar welcome at Toad Tower, and as frustrating as it was to be back in that position after having come so far, Sasha could cope with it just fine...

_Even if she was starting to gain something of a distaste for such enclosed quarters. The scratchy stone under her fingers that never got any softer no matter how many times she checked, the feeling of helplessness that was so foreign and yet so agitatingly familiar all at once…_

Of course, at Toad Tower she’d had a steady supply of toad guards to socialize with and/or manipulate. Here in Newtopia, all she’d had that first week was…

_‘Harold…’_

The tall newt guard had been a constant source of frustration to the blonde, refusing to respond in even the simplest of ways to the demands and jabs she’d made those first few days, and always wearing that thick hood over his head to obscure any expression he might have made at her many colorful words, threats, and insinuations about his parentage. At first, Sasha had thought him to be under orders not to talk to her, but after observing his interactions with Marcy and Anne outside her cell, it was apparent that such muteness was simply his natural state of being. Not that the revelation did much to quell the irritation she felt whenever she thought back on their one-sided encounters.

And then, her wayward friends had bumbled back into her life, shocking her with their confessions of love that made her chest feel _warm-tight,_ followed by their intent to form a polyamorous relationship together with her that made her feel _happy_ and _scared_ and _bewildered_ all at once.

Things had gotten a lot more interesting since then.

Such a sudden flood of social and physical interaction, while certainly welcome in the moment, did come with its downsides. Well, _one_ downside in particular…

That being how _unbearable_ it had become to go without their companionship now that she was accustomed to it again after so many months apart. Now that she knew such love and attention was so close at hand, the idea of lasting any amount of time without it felt absurd. Sasha had never done any drugs before (as hard as that may have been to believe considering her rebellious tendencies), but she was fairly certain she understood the pain of withdrawal after going less than a day without her girls by her side.

Now, Sasha faced the struggle of finding ways to occupy her time while she waited for a visit, like staring at that glow-shroom…

It’s dim light pulsated slowly, washing the otherwise dark cell in a blue glow that seeped into the walls and floor, highlighting every crack and every separation between the gray stones that made up her small prison.

Looking closer, Sasha could see that the mushroom wasn’t the uniform azure she’d initially thought. Hidden amongst the glare were darker spots dotted all along it’s head, more of a sapphire shade than anything else. Some might question how the blonde could determine all that, but she’d spent enough energy on fashion over the years to have a fairly good understanding of shading and coloration.

That, and she’d been staring at the thing for quite some time now. Hard not to pick up on the details after that.

Now, whenever Sasha closed her eyes, a blob of light remained burned into her vision, standing out amidst the void that surrounded it…

_‘That’s… probably not a good sign. I should probably stop before it does any real damage…’_

She didn’t though. Potential eye-damage or not, it was the most interesting thing to happen to her all morning. Between dying of boredom, and going permanently blind, Sasha was leaning towards the later. Maybe then, the others would take pity on her, letting her out of this wretched cell and admitting how wrong they’d been to put her in there in the first place. 

Yeah… Sasha could see it now. She’d need time to get used to her new impairment, and her girls would be falling over themselves to help. She’d have plenty of time to get nice and close with them as they guided her around, always playing frail and helpless so that they’d never leave her side. Oh, she could just feel their warmth already! How they’d always be holding her in some way (to keep her from getting scared of course), the tenderness in their voices as they whispered soothingly in her ear… the way… the way that...

Sasha blinked once as her reason caught up with her. _‘Okay, maybe I really am going crazy in here. Fantasizing about being blind? Really Waybright? How low can you possibly get?’_

With a sigh, the blonde shook her head to clear it of any more stray thoughts, praying to every deity she could think of that her girlfriends would arrive soon to relieve her of her boredom before her mind cracked any more under the stress.

Just as she resigned herself to continuing her regularly scheduled programming of mushroom-watching, her prayers were answered by the creak of the door opening at the end of the hall. Immediately, her heart jumped at the sound of steps on the cobblestone floor, and she sat up straight, lips curling up in an involuntary expression of eager delight as she awaited the sight of her visitors.

It had to be them. She’d already eaten breakfast that morning, or what the newts seemed to think passed as breakfast. Her next meal wouldn’t be for another three hours at least.

Not for the first time, Sasha was glad for the powder she’d been given in lieu of proper hygiene. There were two packets that came every few days with her supper. Harold had been no help in explaining their purpose the first time he’d given them to her, but luckily they came with cutesy little illustrations on the package that gave all the explanation she needed.

One was for her body, the other for her mouth. All she had to do was rub it on herself, or on her teeth, and it would keep her clean. Or at least, clean _enough._

It was no replacement for a nice, hot shower or a refreshing tooth-brushing session, but it had served her well enough when it came to kissing her girlfriends. Stinking as bad as she had at the end of her stay in the Toad Tower dungeon would have definitely been a mood-killer, not to mention _totally_ embarrassing.

Sasha Waybright did _not_ get halitosis.

As the footsteps drew nearer, Sasha did her best to bring her emotions under control, fighting down her smile into an easy smirk and leaning back on her hand in such a way as to convey nonchalance. 

No need to let her girlfriends think she was _desperate_ or anything.

That just wouldn’t do. Not at all.

Finally, they came into view. Sasha barely held her grin down at the sight of Anne trailing behind Harold.

The battle became much easier when she realized that Marcy was nowhere to be seen. _‘That’s… disappointing.’_

It wasn’t the end of the world, she supposed, even as discontent settled heavily in her gut. In the days since they’d started their new relationship, Anne and Marcy hadn’t always come at the same time. Marcy would be busy researching that stupid box that had sent them all here, while Anne…

Anne would be with those little hick-frogs she’d called her friends.

It was… _aggravating,_ knowing that she was such a secondary priority to them. Locked away in her cell, always waiting for her girlfriends to get bored with their day-to-day lives and come pay her a visit so she could _entertain_ them...

Sasha suppressed that line of thought. No point in getting worked up when there was nothing she could do to change it. At least, not yet.

Once she’d found a way out of this mess, things would _definitely_ be changing...

She’d make sure of it.

In the meantime though, Sasha resolved to enjoy what time she could get with her girlfriends, as much as it made her feel like a dog waiting for her owners to come home.

“Hey, Anne!” She greeted with practiced cheerfulness, not allowing her previous musings to show through in her tone.

Anne mumbled a quick “hey” back to her as Harold opened up the cell. “Just for like, half an hour.” She said more clearly, speaking to Harold as she stepped through the entrance. “Need to go see how Marcy’s doing. Haven’t seen her all day…”

Now, Sasha liked to think she could read people pretty well. She could always pick them apart, get under their skin… she always knew how to listen for the little tells and signs that would reveal a person’s thoughts. All of that went double for her friends, who she knew better than anyone. There was very little that could get past her where her friends were involved. 

And so, even through the disappointment Sasha felt at the shortness of the visit, the blonde could immediately tell that Anne was upset.

As Harold left down the hall and Anne plopped down on the ground, back leaning against the wall next to Sasha, her body language just _radiated_ that something was up. Her shoulders were hunched, her hands wringing nervously in her lap as she remained dead silent…

Frowning, Sasha moved quickly into comfort-mode, slipping an arm around her girlfriend’s shoulders even as she silently promised bloody vengeance against who or whatever had messed with her.

“Hey girl... is everything okay?”

She didn’t miss the way Anne tensed under her touch, refusing to make eye contact… her frown deepened.

“C’mon, talk to me.” Sasha urged. “I know something’s eating you…”

Silence. A slight shuffle as Anne gave her an odd glance, then quickly looked back away. _‘Okay, that’s a bit weird…’_

Thinking quickly, the blonde shifted gears. “Alright, if you don’t want to talk about it, just tell me who did it so I can break their kneecaps.”

That got a slight smile, though it quickly faded. “Please don’t… I like them.” Anne murmured softly, turning to look at her directly. At that moment, the other girl’s eyes seemed to fill with purpose as she started to explain…

“So… remember how I mentioned being worried about the Plantars finding out about… this?”

Sasha nodded, wondering if those stupid frogs were the reason Anne was such a wreck. _‘Should’ve let me deal with them while we had the chance, Anne…’_

“Well… I managed to get back to the hotel we’re staying at and slip into bed before anyone noticed I was back, so I didn’t have to explain where I was all day…” Anne cringed slightly. “This morning though, Sprig kinda... cornered me to find out what I’d been doing. He uh, _wasn’t taking no for an answer…”_

Sasha mulled over the name for a moment, trying to put a face to it… _‘Sprig… Sprig…’_ Suddenly, it all came back to her in a hot flash of rage, though she concealed it from Anne. 

“Is, that, uh, the pink one? The squeaky toy?” 

The one who’d thrown mud at her face. The one who’d had the _audacity_ to accuse her of being a bad friend, a _bully_ , _when he didn’t know a thing about them!_ Oh yes, Sasha remembered that face _very_ well… She’d enjoyed finding new ways to smash it during training exercises.

To her surprise, that actually garnered a moment of heat from Anne, who gave her a warning glare. “Don’t call him that.” She snapped touchily.

The blonde rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever.” She aquisieced.

Slowly, Anne continued her story as the irritation left her tone, though she continued to watch Sasha carefully, as though _she_ was the one being unreasonable over a simple off-hand comment. “I didn’t say anything about us dating, so don’t worry about that.” _‘I wasn’t anyway. Who cares what a bunch of slimy frogs think?’_ “But uh, it _miiiiight_ have come up that me and Marcy have been visiting you the past few days. He... wasn’t happy.”

Of _course_ he wasn’t. The annoying little squeaker didn’t seem to know how to mind his own business. Still, Sasha didn’t get why Anne was so upset about it. “What’s the problem then?”

Anne gave her a little look of disbelief that made annoyance well up in her throat, but continued before she could say anything that would end up being the opposite of the comfort she was trying to provide. “The problem is that we got into an argument!.” She said loudly, throwing her hands into the air for emphasis as she finally regained some of her usual vigor. “I tried to tell him everything was fine, but he… he…”

The excitement seemed to drain out of her then, as she suddenly refused to make eye contact once more.

Sasha waited a moment… two… 

When it became clear that the other girl wasn’t going to continue freely, she tried prompting her. “He _what,_ Anne? Did he hurt you? Because I will break out of here, track him down, and _destroy_ him if he said anything to-”

“That’s not it!” Anne interjected suddenly, blanching slightly at her words. After a moment of silence, during which Sasha tried to reign in her revenge fantasy, she continued. “He said some things about _you._ He said… he said that you were just trying to manipulate us, and that you’ll turn on us as soon as you get an opportunity… Also Polly said she wants to fight you. And Hop Pop started giving some sort of old person advice about friendship, but I didn’t like it, so I tuned it out and dipped as soon as I could.”

For a moment, Sasha simply processed that information, face twisting into a scowl as she focused on the first part.... _‘That… that little… he should be glad I’m stuck in here, or I’d…’_

She forced herself to stop, focusing on Anne in front of her as she measured her response. “Well, what does he know anyway? _Nothing!_ We’ve been friends since _forever_ Anne, you know me! He has _no idea_ what he’s talking about. I mean, who even cares what a bunch of dumb _frogs_ think anywa-”

_“Don’t.”_ Anne interrupted suddenly, irritably. “Don’t talk about them like that.”

Sasha’s lip curled at the ordering tone to her voice, but she moved on, having much more important things to deal with…

“Well. you know better than to believe that junk anyway, so why even worry about it?” At the lack of a quick affirmation, she focused on Anne, a prompting note to her tone as her arm tightened around the other girl’s shoulders. _“Right?”_

Finally, after a silence that went on far too long for Sasha’s liking, Anne looked down as she spoke the words that made her heart freeze in shock. _“I don’t know what I know anymore.”_ She whispered softly, just barely audible to the blonde’s ears.

For the briefest of moments, Sasha froze, mind stalled in incomprehension as Anne’s words registered in her mind. _‘I, she doesn’t… she can’t really mean…’_ Suddenly, like she’d been shocked, she withdrew her arm from around Anne’s shoulders, unable to stomach the physical contact. She mentally repeated the other girl’s words again and again, trying in vain to come up with any explanation for them that didn’t break her heart. 

“Anne, what do you _mean?”_ She hissed, unable to keep the slight tremor out of her voice, her nerves shot as she waited desperately for the answer that would make everything make sense again.

Maybe the words came out harsher than she’d intended, because Anne sat up straight at that, slim shoulders squared as she twisted to stare at Sasha directly. She wore a strange mix of determination and nervousness in her expression as she spoke, all but yelling the words. “I don’t _know_ what to think Sash! I thought I did, back on earth… everything made sense then. I knew we were friends, and that I could trust you, and that you _always_ knew best, even if I didn’t really get it sometimes…”

Her stomach was twisting and roiling, and Sasha, she didn’t know what to do. She wanted to hear what Anne had to say, what she _really_ thought… she wanted the other girl to _shut up,_ to avoid what she knew was coming. She’d never felt more trapped by her cell than in that moment, unable to escape from this situation. Trapped, and scared and _desperate._

“When I saw you at Wartwood… I thought that meant that everything would be okay. I thought, _Sasha will have a plan to get through this, she always does!”_

_I did!_ Sasha wanted to scream. _I still do! You’re the one who ruined everything!_ The words remained stuck in her throat though, and she could only listen in mute helplessness as Anne tore her heart out.

“And then… you took us all prisoner! Tried to kill my friends! You… you _attacked me._ And now, I can’t help but think about back on earth, all the times you’ve pushed us around, forced us to do things... you _are_ manipulative Sasha! And even the things you’ve said about the Plantars today, that proves you haven’t changed! For all I know, you _could_ be manipulating us! You can be so _mean,_ and _cruel,_ and _selfi-”_

_“Shut up!”_

At long last, whatever had kept her from speaking up before seemed to fade, and Sasha wasn’t about to take Anne’s words lying down.

_“Shut up! How-how dare you!_ I can’t believe you’d even _think_ that I’d pretend to be in love with you just to-”

“I already said that I don’t _know_ what to think! Still, it’s not like it’s out of the realm of possibility, considering _everything else_ you’ve done!”

Sasha couldn’t take it anymore. She stood up, towering over the other girl as their argument escalated. “I can’t believe this! You’re supposed to be my friend, my _girlfriend!_ How can you let a bunch of _stupid frogs_ come between u-”

_“I said don’t talk about them like that!”_

Anne followed suit, shooting up so that they were face-to-face, glaring at each other.

Shaking with rage, her heart in tatters as she realized that, yes, Anne really was letting a bunch of _frogs_ come between them, Sasha delivered her ultimatum. “Fine, whatever! If you’re really going to choose a bunch of dumb hick-frogs over _me,_ then you can just leave and not come back! I’m _done_ arguing about this!”

For a moment, silence reigned in the cell as Anne seemed to process her words, shocked brown eyes widening ever so slightly.

Then, the younger girl’s eyes narrowed, chin jutting out defiantly as her arms crossed against her chest. “Okay, fine.” She said plainly, and Sasha screamed internally, because _this wasn’t how it was supposed to go!_ Anne was supposed to realize the mistake she was making, and _apologize!_ Sasha would forgive her, of course, and then… then they’d have make-up cuddles or something, _she didn’t know!_

Instead, Anne sat down with her back against the bars of the cell, legs folded up against her chest and cheeks puffed out as she waited for Harold to come back as she’d told him.

A hundred thoughts ran through Sasha’s head as she stared at the other girl, fists clenched at her sides. She wanted to apologize, wanted to say she didn’t mean any of it, wanted to beg her to stay...

She wouldn’t though, she _couldn’t!_ She was in the right! Anne was the one making things difficult! _Anne_ was the one turning against _her! Sasha_ wasn’t the one choosing a bunch of slimy frogs over a life-long friendship! She was only trying to preserve their relationship that Anne was so clearly ready to give up at the slightest resistance! She… she…

She wished she could settle on a satisfying excuse.

Instead, Sasha allowed the room to lapse into a bitter silence as she sat down, back against the wall opposite from the door to be as far from the other girl as possible. She refused to look at Anne, knowing it would only bring up more of these stupid thoughts that made her feel _angry-sick,_ the same way she’d felt back at that awful tower the _first_ time Anne had betrayed her. _‘Or where YOU betrayed HER…’_

Fingers dug tightly into her knees, and Sasha’s teeth clenched as she resisted the urge to howl in rage at the fact that even her own _mind_ was betraying her now. She kept it inside, aided by the knowledge that such an outburst would only tip off Anne to how badly she’d been affected by their argument. Bile rose in her throat at the very idea. She couldn’t let Anne know how conflicted she really was, couldn’t give her the _satisfaction._

Finally, Harold returned. Sasha hadn't realized it had been thirty minutes. Not that she’d been in much of a state to keep track of time. She couldn’t really keep track of _anything_ anymore with the maelstrom raging in her mind.

Anne jumped up from her spot as he unlocked the door, clearly eager to get away from her and back to her _precious frogs._

For just a moment, brought on more by instinct than anything, Sasha looked up at the movement, making eye contact with the other girl before she could turn her back. For that moment, they simply stared at each other, a strange look in Anne’s eyes that made Sasha’s heart race until, without a word, they narrowed back down into a glare, and she turned on the spot, stiffly marching out of the cell without another look back.

A pang of regret hit the blonde, and she resisted the urge to call after her, to beg her not to leave. It was too late anyway, as the newt guard locked the cell once more, and Sasha heard the door at the end of the hall open again, then close. 

She was gone.

Over the next few minutes, Sasha simply sat there, torn between seething at yet another betrayal from one of the people she cared for most, and wallowing in regret and shame, the source of which she’d rather not think about.

Grinding her teeth, the blonde tried to force her conflicting emotions down, deep within herself, where they wouldn’t be able to trouble her or make her question herself and her decisions anymore than they already had. For a moment, it almost seemed to work, but she just couldn’t stop herself from mentally screaming a salvo of questions at an imaginary Anne within her head, questions she wasn’t even sure she wanted the answers to...

_‘How could you turn against me like that?! Throw away everything we had over a bunch of frogs?!’_

_‘Why can’t you understand that I’m only trying to do what’s best for you, for all of us?!’_

_‘Why… why can’t I make you stay?’_

That last thought only persisted for a second in her mind before the slew of feelings she’d tried to suppress came rushing up once more, rapidly rising from her stomach up into her throat as she tried in vain to hold it back. She just wanted them to _go away,_ to stop making her question herself, but _they wouldn’t,_ and Sasha needed to let it out, but she- _she couldn’t,_ until-

Right hand clenching into a white-knuckled fist, Sasha turned and, with an animal noise of fury, punched the wall next to her. Hard.

Immediately, the blonde was filled with regret as pain lanced up her arm, and she clutched the injured limb with her left hand, wincing at the throbbing sensation.

She observed the damage carefully, noting the bruises and scrapes on her knuckles, and comparing it to the decidedly unscathed stonework next to her. 

_‘That was stupid…’_ She thought to herself dully.

Blood began to well from the little cuts and scrapes, but she couldn’t bring herself to care as she started to shiver from the leftover emotion still lingering within her. She leaned back against the wall, her breathing heavy as she fiercely blinked back the moisture that gathered at the corners of her eyes for reasons entirely unrelated to the stinging in her hand.

Her last thought returned to her mind unbidden, taunting her with the feelings it evoked, though she was too exhausted to get angry again.

_‘...Why can’t I make you stay, Anne?’_

The silence that followed was all the answer she was given.

* * *

Next Chapter: Marcy dabbles in couple's counselling, feelings are revealed, and Sasha tries to adapt to a new situation...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my [Tumblr](https://thecrusadercomrade.tumblr.com/) to keep up with progress on all of my fics, interact with me, and see extra content related to my writing, such as deleted scenes!
> 
> 1\. So... there we go! Hope it was worth the wait! I just wanted to point at here that I like to make use of biased/unreliable POVs, meaning that what Sasha says, sees, and thinks might not reflect the true reality of the situation. Just wanted to get that out there so that no one accuses me of bashing Anne and excusing Sasha's more problematic personality traits, or something inane like that. Trust me, that isn't happening here! Next chapter will go into detail about Anne's side of things...
> 
> 2\. Also, how do you guys think I'm doing with emotion? I really wanted to emphasis Sasha's emotions/feelings in my writing, and I hope I was successful!


	3. Marcy Wu: Amateur Couple's Counselor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Wow, look at me being so productive! Took two months for a second chapter, and now I'm putting out a third just a week later! 
> 
> 2\. This one's pretty dialogue heavy, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. I know a lot of people were eager to see how certain things turned out...
> 
> 3\. As always, hope you enjoy the chapter, and I look forward to seeing your thoughts!

**Marcy**

When Marcy went to visit her girlfriend, Sasha, after a long morning of fruitless research on the calamity box, the last thing she expected to find was the blonde huddled in the corner of her cell, a dark look on her face as blood dripped from her right hand.

For a moment, she simply stared in incomprehension, mind trying to piece together the scene in front of her... 

Finally, the fact that Sasha had _blood dripping from her hand_ registered in her brain, and Marcy was jolted into action.

She spent about five seconds fiddling frantically with the door to Sasha’s cell before she remembered that Harold still needed to unlock it. She spent an additional ten seconds yelling at him to _hurry up and unlock it already she could be dying!_

Marcy was in the cell the moment the door opened, shuffling past a silent-as-ever Harold, and squeezing through the only partially-opened gap between the door and the bars. She barely heard herself ordering Harold to stay near, in case they had to go for bandages or medicine or whatever else Sasha might need to _not die._

_‘Bandages… bandages… okay, bandages!’_

For perhaps the first and only time ever, Marcy was grateful for the fragility of her cloak. It would hardly make for sterile material, but it was better than nothing. She unclasped it from around her neck, took the bottom of it between her hands, and _pulled_ hard in opposite directions…

Nothing. She pulled harder, grunting slightly at the effort. Still nothing. 

_‘Really?! You’ll tear, or catch on fire for anything, but not when Sasha needs my help?! Gah, stupid, weak nerd arms! Dang it! Why do I have to be so useless...’_

It was laughably pathetic as she tugged uselessly at the material, trying to ignore the moisture building in her eyes at her own failure. Eventually Marcy gave up, tossing the cloak aside as she knelt down next to Sasha to figure out what exactly was going on. _‘...Probably should’ve started out with that.’_

“Hey Sash… are you… _okay?”_ Marcy asked, surprising herself by not freaking out. Openly, that is.

Sasha looked up from her lap, almost seeming _surprised_ to see Marcy in front of her. Then, her pretty face twisted into an expression of anger that had become uncomfortably familiar to Marcy. “I just can’t believe her!” The blonde erupted, throwing her hands into the air as she bared her teeth. Marcy flinched just a little bit as flecks of blood flew from the injured hand, dotting the cell’s stonework, though luckily she managed to avoid any _splash damage_ herself.

Marcy was pretty sure she understood who Sasha was talking about, but nevertheless, she felt the need to clarify. “Uh, are you talking about Ann-”

_“Of course I’m talking about Anne!”_ Sasha growled, in that way she always did when she was _seriously out of patience._ “She’s being totally unreasonable! It’s-it’s ridiculous! After _everything_ I’ve done for her, she just-” The blonde let out a guttural noise of rage and frustration, squeezing at the air with her uninjured hand. Marcy didn’t have to be a genius to know what the blonde _wished_ she was doing with that hand.

Okay, whatever had happened between her and Anne, it clearly wasn’t _good._ Still, Marcy needed to know more before she made any judgements…

“Uh, okay, so _clearly_ something happened between you guys... do you mind telling me _what?”_

That seemed to bring up some bad memories, as Sasha went bright red, starting to shake in rage. “I just can’t _believe_ her!” She snarled, either unaware or uncaring that she was repeating herself. “One of those stupid frogs she loves so much told her that _she can’t trust me!”_ The blonde paused for effect, as though that was somehow an unreasonable thing to say. “An-and what’s worse, _She believed him!_ She turned against me, choosing a bunch of dumb frogs over _me,_ all because _he told her so!_ She-she even said that _I was faking my love for you guys…_ I mean… _how could she say that?”_

Marcy had seen Sasha _angry_ before, plenty of times in fact. But never in her life had she seen the blonde so _upset._

Looking closer as the other girl ranted, Marcy could even see that the skin around her eyes appeared to be… _red?_ Like she’d been _crying._

That just didn’t make sense though. Sasha never cried! 

And yet, the evidence was right in front of her, in bloodshot eyes, and the slight waver to the blonde’s voice, like she was just seconds away from being overcome with emotion… it was _hard_ for Marcy to see her normally strong, fearless girlfriend like that... 

Even then...

“That doesn’t really sound like something Anne would do…” 

Even as Sasha glared at her, Marcy remained steadfast. Anne was just too nice a person, and she cared about Sasha too much to just… throw her away, like the blonde was insinuating. No way was she getting the full picture here.

...And, to be honest, it wouldn’t be the first time Sasha misrepresented a situation to get her way. Her mind was drawn to one such scenario, years ago, when Sasha had gotten one of Marcy’s bullies suspended by framing them for stealing another kid’s necklace. Obviously this was a _very different_ kind of situation, and _no way_ did Marcy think for a second that Sasha was just manipulating them both like that... but it didn’t change that she _knew_ Sasha could be deceptive…

“Well that’s what _happened._ Unless _you_ think I’m lying too…” Sasha glowered.

“What? _No!_ I’m just saying… maybe Anne had a _reason_ for what she said, and maybe… maybe you just _misunderstood_. And…” Marcy cringed internally at her next words, but pressed on. “Are you _sure_ that you didn’t say anything back that might’ve made the situation worse?”

Just as she’d expected, Sasha didn’t take that last part well. Or any of it really. The blonde stared at her for a moment, her gaze laced with a mixture of anger and… disappointment?

“I should’ve known…” She muttered under her breath.

“What?”

“I should’ve _known_ you’d take her side! Of _course_ you are! Everyone just _loves_ to gang up on Sasha!”

“What, no, I’m not _taking her side!_ I’m not taking _anybody’s side!_ Ther- _there_ _are no sides, okay?_ This is just a little _argument_ , and I want to find out what _happened,_ so I can _fix it,_ and _we can all be happy again, okay?!”_

Marcy was aware that she was starting to sound a little manic, but she really was getting overwhelmed by this whole mess. The last thing she’d expected to have to do that day was get involved in a dispute between her new girlfriends, when everything had seemed so _hunky-dory fine_ just the day before! She could be forgiven, for being just _a little out-of-sorts,_ okay?!

Unfortunately, Sasha didn’t seem to be in a particularly cooperative mood. “Whatever.” She grumbled. “But I don’t want to see her again unless she comes to _apologize,_ got it?”

_‘Don’t get mad Marcy, don’t get mad. She’s clearly going through a hard time, getting mad won’t help anything just stay calm-’_

Taking a deep, _calming_ breath, Marcy planned out her next few moves. “Okay, just… stay here _-I mean, it’s not like you can leave so why did I say that-_ just, try to calm down, okay? I’ll go find Anne, and I’ll get to the bottom of this, and _everything! Will be fine!”_

Sasha rolled her eyes, raising Marcy’s blood pressure _even higher,_ only for the gesture to be cut off as the blonde winced. Two pairs of eyes shot down to Sasha’s bleeding hand, and Marcy sucked in air through her teeth.

_‘Right, her hand. Her_ _right_ _hand. Heh. Wait, this isn’t the time for jokes!’_

“Okay, Harold!” The newt snapped to attention. Or at least, Marcy _thought_ he did. He might’ve just shuffled in place a little… “I’ll go find Anne. _You_ go get some bandages, and something to disinfect the wound! Patch her up, and I’ll be back when I ca-”

“If that newt tries to touch me, _I’ll feed him his own tail.”_

...Marcy sighed. “Okay, just… find the stuff, and wait outside until I get back. I’ll take over from there.”

With that, she left the blonde to suffer in silence just a little longer, hoping she could find Anne, figure out what was going on, bring her back to the cell so Marcy could fix up Sasha’s hand, and then they could all be happy girlfriends again! Sounded easy enough…

...Right?

* * *

As it turned out, finding Anne was _not_ easy.

She wasn’t in the palace, which made things much more difficult. She also wasn’t at the hotel as far as any of the Plantars knew. That just left… _all of Newtopia._ Great.

Almost two hours after she started her search, Marcy finally found her in the outside section of a cafe they’d visited a few times before. They had excellent buggaccinos, and while Anne wasn’t a total fanatic for them, Marcy certainly _was._ She’d been sad to see it close during the siege, and even when it opened back up afterwards, they’d had yet to return. It just didn’t seem right going there together when Sasha was locked up…

Now however, it seemed Anne had chosen it as her place of refuge. She was seated at a corner table by herself, easy to spot amongst the otherwise bustling cafe and surrounding street. All manner of Amphibians were seated at the two-dozen tables, and even more hustled through the street, forming an ever-changing, multi-colored ocean of bodies and providing a constant background noise of shouted conversation and stamping feet as they hurried to wherever it was they had to go.

Marcy slipped into the seat next to her, and Anne looked up from the drink she was cradling. Her eyes were puffy as well…

_‘Wow, that argument must’ve been pretty bad…’_

“Why’re you here?” Anne asked plainly, clearly drained from the day’s events. “No offense, but I _really_ don’t wanna be around anyone right now…”

Marcy tapped her finger on the table, trying to decide the best way to broach the topic… “So… I talked to Sasha.”

That got a reaction. Anne sat up straighter, eyeing her carefully. “Yeah? What did she say? I’m sure she had _all sorts of stories_ ready to go about how _horrible_ I am…”

Judging by the sarcastic tone, Anne was already well aware that Sasha had been less-than-objective in her retelling. Not that Marcy could blame her for her assumption. 

She knew Sasha well.

“Well… she definitely had… _things,_ to say. She said that you… chose the Plantars over her? And that you accused her of pretending to be in love with us? At least, I _think_ that’s what she said. She was pretty angry, and I was really _worried,_ and I just, I’m just trying to-”

Anne scoffed, slamming her cup down, so that brown liquid and foam sloshed onto the table in a sticky mess. “I guess she didn’t tell you _the rest,_ then? How she kept _insulting_ the Plantars? Kept acting like a _jerk!_ I didn’t _want_ things to get that bad, but she just- _she just kept pushing me!_ I didn’t want to leave, but she- _she told me to,_ and I was just so... _angry,_ that I did! _I left!_ She’s just… she was just so-”

She made a frustrated noise, waving her arms in the air for emphasis. 

Marcy bit her lip. She just didn’t know what to do.

Anne was clearly upset, and she had good reason to be! But… Sasha was hurting too. She just wanted to help them _both_ but they probably _hated_ each other and Marcy’s heart felt all _achy-weird_ and she just-she just…

She rested her head on the table, not wanting to see Anne for a minute as she tried to process everything, hopefully coming up with a solution in the process. _‘Why does life have to be so hard?’_ Marcy whined internally, arms coming up to frame her smushed face.

Slowly, she combed back through everything Anne and Sasha had told her, searching for _something,_ some sort of thread that would lead her to a solution...

_‘So, they both had a lot to say, but what did they both talk about that has them upset… the Plantars… the Plantars!’_

“What did you and the Plantars talk about before you met with Sasha?” Marcy spoke up suddenly, the first few words slightly muffled as she peeled her face from the table. “Why… why does Sasha think you chose the Plantars over her?”

For a moment, Anne looked stunned, eyes going wide as she straightened in her seat. Then, she slouched back down, a frown coming over her face. “Well, it was mostly Sprig that I talked to. I accidentally let it slip that I’d been visiting Sasha, and he… well, he wasn’t happy about it. He thought that Sasha was just trying to manipulate us, and that she’d turn on us as soon as she could. I… might’ve said some of that to Sasha. _I was just trying to make her understand how I felt!”_ She blurted suddenly, defensively. “But… that just made her angry, and then _I_ got angry, and… I might’ve mentioned the possibility that Sasha was pretending to be in love with us to fool us. She… _really didn’t like that.”_

Marcy nodded slowly, thinking carefully about… _all of that._ Suddenly, her next question popped into her mind, and her stomach started twisting into knots even before she opened her mouth. “So… _Do you_ think that Sasha is lying to us? About being in love with us, I mean?”

Anne stared at her with an unreadable look in her eye, and, despite the busy city-life going on all around them, Marcy could’ve sworn there was dead silence in that moment...

…

…

…

“...No, I don’t.”

Marcy released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She wasn’t sure what she would’ve done if Anne had told her _yes._ The other girl wasn’t done yet though...

“I _do_ think she can be _devious,_ and _manipulative,_ and _controlling,_ but… I don’t think she’s lying to us about this. Sasha… isn’t a very good person sometimes, I know that. But I also know that… that she _cares_ about us. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but… I just don’t think Sasha would lie about something like that.”

“Then why did you say what you did?” Marcy questioned, quietly happy that at least _some_ progress was being made.

Anne cringed slightly, as though reliving the moment. “It’s just… I love Sasha. But I love Sprig and the Plantars too! They’re like family to me. I _trust_ them. I know Sprig was just trying to look out for me, and, hey, it’s not like he doesn’t have a _reason_ to be worried about Sasha! It’s… what he said stuck with me, and then Sasha started acting like a _jerk,_ and it-it just slipped out! I was _angry,_ and I was _lashing out,_ and I _regret it,_ okay? I… I regret a lot of what I said.”

_‘Okay… okay, this is good! We’re starting to work through this, and we’re getting to the root of the conflict! Good job, me!’_

“Do you… do you think we rushed into things?”

Marcy’s self-congratulation train froze in its tracks.

“What did you say?” She questioned dumbly.

“Do you think we moved too fast… with Sasha? That… maybe we shouldn’t have just jumped into dating her like we did?”

Marcy gnawed on her lip. “Yeah… that might be the case. I mean, I’d planned to wait a while after I confessed to her and everything but-then _you_ confessed too, and then I _kissed you,_ and I just got so excited that I just… couldn’t slow down!”

“It was the same for me.” Anne sympathised. “We… definitely got a bit carried away.” 

If Marcy wasn’t mistaken, Anne had a bit of a _blush_ going on. If she was thinking about their first kiss like Marcy was, then she really couldn’t blame her. It was… _definitely something._ And with that burst of adrenaline, they’d immediately ran off to add Sasha to the arrangement…

Now, Marcy didn’t _regret_ the relationship by any means. It was… it just felt _special,_ in a way she couldn’t quite explain. They’d all had relationships before, but those had been little things, kiddie crushes at most. She wanted to believe that this time was different. It certainly _felt_ different. When she was with Anne and Sasha… it was like everything made _sense,_ like she finally understood who she was and her place in the world...

Huh, maybe she _could_ put it into words. Go her.

“Do you… think we should break it off? Until Sasha gets better? Tell her we won’t be with her until she learns to be a better person and all that junk?”

Marcy cringed at the idea, baring her teeth as her lips curled back. “I don’t think that’s a very good plan…” At Anne’s questioning look, she continued. “I mean, you know how Sasha is… if we break up with her, how do you think she’ll react? Do you think she’ll realize she needs to work on self-improvement, and being a better person? Or that she’ll dig her heels in, think that we’re _turning against her,_ and throw away any sort of progress we might have made in bringing her back to the light side? And… I’m gonna be honest. I don’t really _want_ to break up with her anyway. Not when we _finally_ have her back, y’know?”

Anne nodded at that. “Yeah… I don't really either. It’s just… it’s hard, y’know?”

“I know. Yesterday everything was so _great,_ and now… now it feels like things have… kinda fallen apart.”

“It was stupid. Things went so well the past few days, and for some reason I just thought that everything was gonna be fine, like there weren’t a _hundred_ different issues we didn’t even think about before we started… all of this.”

“Yeah… but still, we can always try to fix things. So…” Marcy stood up, hands on her hips. “You ready to get started on issue number one?”

For a moment, nervousness flashed through Anne’s eyes, but she nodded gamely. “Okay… but Sasha needs to apologize for everything she said about the Plantars! If things are gonna change, we can’t just let her keep getting away with stuff like that!”

“Yeah, I get it.” Marcy sighed. “But… don’t forget that you hurt her too. She was pretty upset when I left her. I know you didn’t mean what you said to her, but you should still apologize.”

Anne’s jaw set. “I will… so long as she apologizes too.”

Outwardly, Marcy smiled and nodded. Inwardly, she groaned in _incoming-stress_ at how _hard_ convincing Sasha to _apologize_ would be. She couldn’t even remember the last time Sasha had said sorry for _anything!_ Still… they had to try.

“You know… you’re pretty good at the whole _conflict resolution_ thing, Marsh.” Anne complimented as she stood up, finishing her drink in one, long swig.

“Ohhh, well..."Marcy blushed. “I might not be good with people like you and Sasha, but I _do_ know you guys pretty well. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I’m the leading expert in _Anne-_ thropology and _Sash-_ ology!”

It took a moment, but Anne blinked, and then started snickering. “Oooh, _ooooohhh_ _,_ I get it! Yeah, you definitely are… you _beautiful nerd, you.”_

If Marcy’s cheeks were red before, they were _on fire_ now. “He-hey! Stop that! Not in public!”

Anne chuckled. “Okay… fine. Now, let’s go have a chat with dear ol’ Sash…”

“Ooh! That reminds me!” Marcy interjected, remembering the _other_ situation they had to deal with. “Sasha’s hurt! We need to get back quick so I can patch her up! Harold should hopefully have everything we need by then… I mean, it’s been _two hours_ after all...”

“Wait, _hurt?!_ What happened?!”

“I don’t know, but her hand was bleeding… and pretty bad, too.” Marcy muttered worriedly.

“Really? Dang! Well, I guess we’d better get back quick then. Geez… leave her alone for a couple hours and she nearly goes and gets herself _killed._ She needs constant supervision, I swear… maybe then she wouldn’t constantly be _joining rebellions,_ and _getting thrown in dungeons…”_

With that little aside, they set off for the palace, as Marcy hoped that Sasha was okay… and that Harold hadn’t gotten himself killed trying to take things into his own hands…

* * *

**Sasha**

Anne was back, and she had not yet apologized.

That was the main thing on Sasha’s mind in that moment, as she sat with her legs crossed under her, and Anne directly opposite to her in a mirrored position as they glared at each other. Marcy was off to the side, gazing at them both hopefully with her cloak around her shoulders once more. Sasha wasn’t exactly sure _what_ she was hopeful for. Probably for her to grovel and beg Anne for forgiveness. _‘Not. Happening.’_

Her hand, while still sore, had been cleaned and bandaged by an apologetic Marcy as Sasha most definitely _did not tear up_ at the sting of disinfectant in her open cuts and scrapes.

The blonde had ignored Anne the whole time. If she wasn’t going to apologize, then Sasha didn’t want to hear anything she had to say. (And, maybe, just maybe, Sasha was scared that if she did open her mouth to speak, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from admitting that she’d been terrified that Anne would never come back).

Now, they were in a stand-off as Sasha willed Anne to break first and apologize, while Anne was clearly doing the same to her. She wouldn’t though, and she knew Anne wouldn’t either, stubborn as she wa-

“Hey _Sasha!_ _Anne_ has something she’d like to say to you!” Marcy intoned robotically with a fake smile, shooting a pointed look Anne’s way.

Anne shot back with a clear look of betrayal, and Sasha fought back a grin at her victory even as she mentally gloated. _'Hah! Now you know how it feels, Anne...'_

After a few moments of switching her angered gaze between Marcy and Sasha, the brunette finally sighed and gave in. “Sasha, I’m… I’m sorry about accusing you of faking your feelings for us.” She admitted in a.. surprisingly _sincere_ tone. “I know you’d never do that to us, and it was _way_ over the line for me to even suggest that. I’m _sorry.”_

Before Sasha could accept her apology, as well as get some well-deserved gloating in, Anne continued on, smashing her smug satisfaction into pieces.

“But… even though I shouldn’t have said that stuff, _you_ shouldn’t have insulted the Plantars like you did, either!”

Sasha opened her mouth to argue, but Anne silenced her with a harsh glare that made even _her_ think twice.

“Like it or not, Sash, the Plantars have basically become like a second, adopted family to me. They helped me when no one else would, and we’ve been through _so much_ together. I know I can’t _make_ you like them, but you _are_ going to respect my relationship with them if you want to keep _our_ relationship. I love you, but I’m not going to let you rule my life and tell me what to do anymore. The Plantars are my _family,_ and you have to deal with it! This isn’t up for discussion!”

Obviously, Sasha’s first instinct was to push back, to rebel against this clear upheaval of their tried-and-true relationship, the way that Anne was _still_ letting a bunch of frogs come between them, but… something within her held back. Slowly, a new idea began to form in the depths of her mind.

Even as her face went red and her jaw clenched, Sasha began to ruminate on something _new,_ something she hadn’t really considered before...

They wouldn’t be in Amphibia forever. Sasha would make sure of that.

If they were going home, well, they wouldn’t be bringing the _Plantars_ with them… oh no, they’d be going back to whatever dilapidated hut they’d crawled out of.

Once they were back on Earth, they wouldn’t have to think about the _Plantars,_ or _Amphibia_ ever again. They could just forget all about it! Anne would probably need some time of course, sentimental as she was, but eventually… it would all just be a bad memory.

Sasha didn’t _need_ to worry about the Plantars ruining everything! All she had to do, was _outlast_ them...

It was the perfect plan! She could make peace with her wayward girlfriend, _and_ she wouldn’t even need to worry about those stupid frogs! All _she’d_ have to do was the occasional damage control when one of them put _unfortunate ideas_ in dear, gullible Anne’s head.

Yes, it rankled her pride, but surely it was better to take a small loss and win the war, instead of losing _everything_ because one frog couldn’t keep his squeaky little mouth shut?

So… _why not just play along for now?_

Sasha took a deep breath as she made her decision. “Okay, Anne.” She suppressed a chuckle at the surprise on her girlfriend’s face. “I understand. I still don’t like them, but… I don’t want to push you away. I’ll lay off on them... I _promise.”_

To her own credit, nothing she’d said was _untrue._ Between losing Anne forever, and stomaching a few frogs, she’d gladly take the later.

She didn’t apologize though. Why would she, when _Anne_ was the one who started everything? Still, her girlfriends seemed happy enough at her words, twin little smiles on their faces as they gazed at her lovingly. It felt… nice, to have them looking at her like that again after everything they’d just been through.

“So… is everything okay now?” Marcy asked tentatively, grey eyes shifting between Sasha and Anne.

“Yeah, I think we’ll be alright.” Anne murmured, smiling in a way that made Sasha’s heart beat faster.

For her part, Sasha just nodded. It still felt just a little bit _wrong_ to give ground like that, but if it made her girls happy, and it helped her in the long run... she could cope with it for now.

“Okay…” Marcy grinned. “Now kiss!”

Sasha froze, and then turned to stare at Marcy in disbelief. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Anne doing the same.

Marcy giggled nervously, red flaring up on her cheeks. “Uh… guess I… misread the room a little, huh?”

“Just a little bit, Marsh.” Anne teased, smiling.

“Well, _I_ wouldn’t be opposed.” Sasha stated formally, though she couldn’t fight back her smirk.

That set things off. Slowly, as Anne switched her gaze to stare at her in shock, the brunette started to giggle. Soon, Marcy joined in, and then Sasha herself, as they all laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Yeah… Sasha could get used to this. She’d keep her girls on the right path, even if she had to be a bit more… _subtle,_ then usual.

She’d keep them safe, and get them home. 

Even if they didn’t realize it.

* * *

Coming Up: Sasha learns more about Anne’s time in Amphibia, discusses politics with Marcy, and reveals a bit of her own time with the Toads...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my [Tumblr](https://thecrusadercomrade.tumblr.com/) to keep up with progress on all of my fics, interact with me, and see extra content related to my writing, such as deleted scenes!
> 
> 1\. So, what did you think? I did a lot of thinking for some of the dialogue, especially Anne's, and I'm still not quite satisfied with how it turned out. Still, I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> 2\. Also... I did say Sasha would be trying to adapt to a new situation. I never said it would be a positive adaption, now did I? Oh well, I'm sure things will go very well from here on out...
> 
> 3\. Man, I spent so much time editing this. The most I've ever spent on a single chapter. Funny how it all comes together so easily in your head, but when it comes time to write it down, noooooo.
> 
> 4\. Also, I have exams coming up, so writing productivity might slow down quite a bit from here for a while. Wish me luck!


	4. Sasha Does Not Have a Revenge-Face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Happy very-late christmas everybody! This was originally planned to go up on christmas eve, but it just kept getting bigger, and it ended up taking a lot longer than expected. It's a lot longer than any chapter so far, at 6.6k words, so consider this my belated christmas present to all you fine people! Or if you don't celebrate that particular holiday, than you can just consider this a regular ol' gift! I really do appreciate all of you guys, especially the ones you leave lovely comments for me to read. Thank all so much for making this a great year for me, and let's hope that the coming year will be even better!
> 
> 2\. Also, we have a very special bonus POV to this chapter! I look forward to seeing your reactions!
> 
> 3\. As I always say, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and I'd look forward to hearing what you all think!

**Sasha**

It took two days for Sasha’s hand to heal fully.

By some miracle, she’d managed to avoid breaking any bones in her little temper tantrum, though the cuts and scrapes she’d opened in her ill-advised attempt to fight a wall were still enough to keep her from using that hand those two days.

According to Marcy, such a quick recovery was strange. From the research she’d done back home (because _of course_ she’d read up on first aid along with everything else she had stored in that giant brain of hers), it should’ve taken about a week for the injury to heal fully, if not longer considering how deep some of those cuts were.

Sasha hadn’t shared her curiosity. She was just glad to be free of those restrictive bandages the other girl had wound so tightly around her knuckles. No matter how many times she changed them for the blonde, Marcy always seemed to pull them as strangle-tight as possible. 

Not that Sasha had ever complained. She wasn’t a _wimp._

She would’ve done them herself if she’d needed to of course. She just wanted Marcy to feel helpful after her unfortunate display with her cloak. 

That was the only reason.

Even if it did feel somewhat nice to have the smaller girl fretting over her like that.

Just a little bit.

“What can I say?” The blonde had quipped with a smirk as Marcy poked and prodded investigatively at her knuckles, searching in vain for residual signs of her previous injury. “I guess I’m just _that_ great!” Her girlfriends had snickered at her joke, just as she’d expected, and no more thought had been given to the subject.

Needless to say, Sasha was quite happy to have her hand back. Without her dominant right hand, even simple tasks like eating had become a frustrating chore. At one point, after a fifth, spilled spoonful of broth thanks to her left hand’s complete inability to hold a utensil without shaking, she’d entertained the idea of asking Anne or Marcy for assistance. The thought of her girlfriends taking turns feeding her was a tantalizing one, but the humiliation and teasing that would inevitably result ultimately outweighed her desire to be pampered.

If the bandages had remained on another few days? Well, that might’ve been another story…

Not only had her hand healed, but things had gone back to normal between her and Anne. 

Mostly.

It was awkward at first, obviously. Anne tried to hide it, but she was clearly walking on eggshells with every word she spoke to Sasha, like the blonde was some sort of wild animal, ready to chomp down with razor-sharp teeth at the first misstep. It had taken all Sasha had not to point out that Anne knew _exactly_ why she’d gotten upset that day, so why was she acting like any little thing could set her off?

That was something she was still getting used to. Not speaking her mind.

Sasha was not a girl who was used to holding her tongue. When she thought of a joke or wisecrack to share, she shared it. When she had an opinion, she let it be known, no matter what the people around her might’ve thought.

And when Sasha didn’t like something? She made _sure_ her friends were aware, and took steps to _fix_ the problem as soon as possible.

Playing nice, and staying quiet whenever Anne talked about the frogs who’d driven a wedge between them _twice_ now?

That was… _frustrating,_ to say the least. Teeth-grindingly frustrating. Fist-your-tunic-in-your-hand-and-try-not-to-scream-while-outwardly-smiling frustrating.

But she’d managed to maintain her new strategy so far (not that she’d ever doubted herself). Sasha knew how to adapt when she needed to. It was how she’d survived Toad Tower after all.

She’d get through this too.

* * *

Two days after they’d fought, and then made up, Anne had once again stopped by to hang out with Sasha.

It was the first time since their fight that Marcy wasn’t with them. Maybe Marcy had been worried about them arguing again. Or maybe Anne had wanted support in case they _did_ end up arguing again. Whatever the case, whenever Anne had showed up to visit Sasha in her cell, Marcy had been at her side.

On one hand, Sasha had always greatly preferred to have both of her girlfriends visiting at once. Double the girls meant double the cuddles after all, so that in and of itself wasn’t a problem.

On the other…

Being ganged up on was an experience she’d become all too familiar with since she’d arrived in Amphibia. If holding her tongue with Anne was hard, then the knowledge that speaking her mind would bring the ire of both her _and_ Marcy was _crushing._ Knowing that both of them would be against her in any confrontation… it was isolating, to say the least.

Even with both her girlfriends by her side, she still felt alone. It was almost funny, in a hilariously-tragic kind of way.

Regardless, apparently Anne felt safe enough to go it alone this time. Or Marcy was busy. One of the two. 

Marcy was busy a lot these days…

At the very least, the other girl seemed to have gotten over her timidness, a cheerful glow to her face as she entertained Sasha with tales of her time at that backwater the blonde had found her in, _Wartwood._

_‘Yuck. Even the name is all froggy and gross.’_

At that moment, Anne was telling her about her time playing some weird basketball-sounding game with her little frog friends, called _bugball_ of all things. Sasha sat leaning against the wall with her arms crossed loosely by her stomach, not far from the spot where she’d punched the stonework. Anne was sitting perpendicular to her, legs slung casually over the blonde’s lap as she leaned back on her arms, occasionally lifting one up to gesture excitedly at a particularly important part of the story.

Well, Sasha _thought_ they were important parts. She might’ve been just a little bit _distracted_ by Anne’s legs hooked over her thighs. The other girl was just so _warm_ that Sasha really didn’t know how she could be expected to pay attention, her body heat radiating even through the thin fabric of the blonde’s simple, brown pants.

_Super_ warm.

_Hard-to-focus_ warm.

That wasn’t even getting into the impossibly comforting weight of those legs on her lap, slight as it was. Or the way Anne’s bare skin would brush against her own cloth-covered limbs, setting her nerve-endings on fire with every little shift and movement...

It was getting hard to keep her arm placement casual and not reach out to feel the other girl’s skin on her fingertips.

That would be weird.

Sasha wondered at that for a moment. Why _was_ she so obsessed with their warmth, with being close to them? It wasn’t the first time she’d noticed it.

Maybe it was because she’d spent so much time around cold-blooded amphibians, like Grime and his men. After all that time away from warm-blooded humans, even being _near_ Anne or Marcy seemed to make her head spin pleasantly, like she was drunk. Not that she’d ever really _been_ drunk, but she was pretty sure she knew what it was like thanks to them.

Realistically, Sasha knew that she’d get used to it eventually, through sheer exposure if nothing else.

More _romantically_ speaking… she couldn’t even begin to imagine a day where holding her girls close didn’t make her want to sigh like a total idiot.

_‘God, I’ve got it bad…’_ The blonde thought dreamily, unable to find it in herself to be _too_ annoyed at the truth of it as she blinked lazily, almost lulled into unconsciousness by the pleasant timbre of her girlfriend’s voice…

_“So, yeah, that’s pretty much how that all went down…”_

Vaguely, Sasha became aware that Anne had reached the end of her little tale, and she shook her head discretely to dispel the haze around her mind as she sat up, knowing that the other girl would be expecting some sort of response.

“So…” Sasha started, dragging out the word with a smirk meant to hide the fact that she was desperately wracking her slowly-awakening brain for a suitable comment. “Anne Boonchuy playing a _team_ sport? And _winning?_ Isn’t _that_ interesting…”

“Hey…” Anne narrowed her eyes, thankfully just a playful gesture as far as she could tell. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well... you’ve never exactly been a _team_ player, Anne. You got kicked off almost every school sports team back home because you didn’t _play well_ with others…”

She remembered very well each and every time Anne had come to her, huffing and puffing over the _injustice_ of it all with every ban she’d received. Ever since she was a little kid, Anne had always had big ideas about _justice_ and _fairness..._ though Sasha didn’t really think those concepts applied to being booted from the soccer team because she wouldn’t pass the ball.

Anne shrugged at that, the gesture somewhat awkward with her hands splayed behind her on the stone floor. “What can I say? Guess I changed...”

_‘That’s obvious…’_ Sasha thought, bitter frustration pressing tightly into her throat as her mind drifted unwillingly to the other girl’s stubbornness in recent times. _‘Don’t say anything. Don’t. Say. Anything.’_ Things were going well. No point in starting a fight that wouldn’t even go her way...

Still, she couldn’t help but admit that _this_ at least was a positive change, even if she’d need to personally witness Anne handing off the ball before she was ready to fully believe it.

Or, well, the _bug,_ in this case…

...Was there anything in this world that _wasn’t_ weird or gross?

Anne continued on, heedless of her inner thoughts on the subject. “Honestly, I think I’ve grown _a lot_ living in Wartwood, making new friends and all that junk...” She rubbed at the back of her neck with her right hand, and Sasha could _feel_ the way she shifted to balance on the other through her legs. “...Even if it took awhile for people to warm up to me…”

_‘Right. That.’_

Sasha had noticed that in a few of Anne’s stories. The dumb, hick frogs of Wartwood, who Anne had risked their entire _friendship_ over, apparently treated her like _garbage_ when she first showed up to their trash-heap town.

For the life of her, Sasha just couldn’t understand why Anne had fought so hard, not only for a bunch of _frogs,_ but a bunch of frogs who’d shunned her, treated her like dirt, and only warmed up to her once she became useful to them. She desperately wanted to ask that question, to make it make sense in some way, if that was even possible considering how ridiculous it was. But she knew better than to actually try. Knowing Anne these days, she’d somehow take offense to her entirely valid criticism, and then they’d end up in _another_ nausea-inducing, heart-wrenching fight that made her want to scream and cry at the same time.

Sasha was getting sick of fights.

Instead, she fixed Anne with her most charming smile, already thinking of a way to take her mind off of the other girl’s poor choice in friends. “Well, of course they warmed up to you! You’re too cute for anyone _not_ to like!”

It was a statement skillfully designed to fluster and embarrass, and it performed it’s job perfectly.

Within seconds, Anne’s entire face flushed a deep, pretty scarlet shade. Her mouth hung open as whatever she’d been about to say next was forgotten, and her eyes were so wide in a mixture of shock, understanding, and embarrassment that it made Sasha want to laugh out loud in delight.

It was a good look for her.

Sasha couldn’t help but be pleased with herself, not to mention her results. She’d never had any doubt in her ability to flirt and make her girls blush, but to see it with her own, two eyes was always a treat. There really was nothing better than-

“Oh, _stop it!”_ Anne giggled bashfully, sitting up and shoving at her shoulder lightly, a grin on her face despite her flustered state. “You-you can’t just _say that…”_

Sasha grinned back, response already prepped. “What? I can’t admire my _cute girlfri-”_

Anne swatted at her head playfully, and the blonde all but shrieked in laughter, barely able to bring an arm up in time to block the other girl’s frantic blows as her girlfriend’s blush darkened even further.

A part of her noted that her reflexes were getting rather dull without constant training.

Most of her was too busy having fun to care.

Despite everything, Sasha truly enjoyed moments like these. There, sitting on the floor, she could just lose herself in the simple pleasure of messing around with her friend-turned-girlfriend. She’d missed that sort of thing in their time apart, as much as she’d had other things to worry about, like giant killer birds and learning how to live with a bunch of talking toads.

For a few seconds, she could even forget the precipice their relationship teetered on, just one shove away from being lost forever...

_‘Aaaaand, I just killed my own mood.’_

Releasing an inaudible sigh, Sasha’s cheer quickly abandoned her in the face of stark reality, seeping away into the dark stones that made up her prison and leaving her to stare it down alone. Her arm dropped to her side as Anne gave up her assault, and she began scouring her mind once more, picking over every part of Anne’s story for some witty remark or clever flirtation to raise her spirits back up from the pit she’d inadvertently thrown herself into.

Instantly, Sasha’s thoughts were drawn to one particular moment of the story, a part of the climax. Not a pleasant little excerpt to help her laugh, but a distraction nonetheless...

In fact, as she mulled it over in her head, her quiet melancholy was replaced with a deep-seated _anger,_ anger that she fought to keep off her face as she turned to Anne with a question on the tip of her tongue…

“That frog… the one who blinded you? What was his name again? I forgot.”

The blonde did her absolute best to pose the question as innocently as possible, not wanting Anne to worry her pretty little head over what she had planned. A tilt of her head to show curiosity, delivering the words in a slow, almost lazy manner to let the other girl know that it wasn’t _really_ all that important…

Just a casual question.

Nothing to be concerned over.

Sasha had gotten plenty of practice with that sort of thing in the past, exercising careful control over her words and tone to sell whatever story she’d concocted to whichever teacher, authority figure, or fellow student needed to hear it. Such techniques had definitely come in handy when dealing with that psychotic newt general Newtopia had sent after her and Grime before they’d gathered their army for payback.

It was still the most satisfying victory she’d had in Amphibia.

One of a few amidst an ocean of humiliating failures.

She’d hardly needed that skillset with Anne or Marcy back home, of course, but she was confident the result would be the same.

“Huh?” Anne tilted her head, a contemplative frown turning down the corners of her lips. “Oh, Toady? Yeah, he’s the assistant to Mayor Toadstool. You… might’ve seen him. Real tiny, wears a bowtie. Surprisingly good bugball player though. Not gonna lie, that stuff he threw at me _really_ messed me up. It hurt like crazy, and I couldn’t see a thing! Didn’t stop us from winning the game though, not to brag or anything…”

The blonde ignored Anne’s _totally-not-a-brag,_ nodding distractedly as she made a mental note... 

_‘Toady, huh? I’ll remember that if I ever end up in Wartwood again…’_

Back home, Sasha had been the protector of her little group. Obviously, she couldn’t be everywhere at once, couldn’t stop every bully. But she _always_ made sure that no one messed with her friends and got away scot-free. She made them regret ever even _looking_ at Anne or Marcy the wrong way. So letting some upjumped, frog pencil-pusher hurt Anne like that? 

_That just wasn’t going to fly._

* * *

**Toady**

Toady released a strangled yelp as he fell from the chair he’d been balancing on while trying to sort through the top shelf of one of the many filing cabinets scattered throughout the city hollow, a task Mayor Toadstool had set him on while he took his fifth scheduled break of the morning.

The cause of his distress was a feeling known to any frog living out in the sticks like he did...

The unmistakable shiver up his spine that signified the eyes of a predator on his small, potentially delicious frame.

Immediately, he was on his feet, heart racing as he scanned the room for any sign of a beast that had somehow snuck it’s way inside, ready to pounce as soon as he took a single step...

Nothing.

Not a single hint.

Probably just a product of his under-rested, overworked brain, then.

That was it.

Slowly, breathing a sigh of relief, the small frog started to gather up the papers he’d scattered in his brief panic, grumbling slightly at the extra work he’d made for himself. Even then, as he righted the chair and hopped back up to reach the top shelves once more, he couldn’t escape the strange feeling in the back of his mind that he’d been marked for a truly horrific fate…

Toady sighed.

_‘I could really use some coffee…’_

* * *

**Sasha**

“Uh… Sash?”

Sasha blinked, pulled from her fantasies of well-deserved payback by the sound of Anne’s voice. She looked over to the other girl, noting with confusion the odd expression on her face. “Yeah?”

Anne was leaning back on her arms once more, but her body language was far from casual, a questioning look along with _something else_ in her eyes that made Sasha want to tense up. “Are you… feeling okay? You’ve got that _revenge-face_ thing going on.”

Now Sasha was _really_ confused. “What are you _talking about?”_ She responded, squinting at her girlfriend in an involuntary expression of annoyance.

“Y’know, your _revenge-face._ The face you always get when me or Marcy tells you about someone who was bullying us? Like that time when we were eleven, and I told you about that girl, Sally, who _stole my pencil case.”_ Anne’s voice carried an unsubtle note of indignation, like she was _still_ sore over it years later. She brought up her right hand to gesture haphazardly as she continued. “So, I told you about it, and you got _that face,_ and later that day you just walked up to me and gave me my pencil case back!” She rubbed her chin, squinting at Sasha contemplatively. “Ya know, I don’t think you ever told me how you got it back…”

Sasha remembered that. It didn’t carry the same emotional weight to her that it clearly did to _Anne,_ but she remembered.

It was one of her prouder moments really. She’d been furious when Anne had come to her, not quite crying, but eyes glistening enough that it had made Sasha’s stomach twist in anger and concern nonetheless. No one got to mess with one of her friends and get away with it. She’d tracked down _Sally,_ cornered her in the girl’s bathroom, and made it _crystal clear_ that there would be a reckoning if she pulled another stunt like that.

Nothing physical of course, though she wouldn’t have been above it.

Sometimes, words could hurt even more than fists.

Walking out of that bathroom with Anne’s pencil case in hand, and a sniveling Sally left behind had felt _amazing._ Like she was some great warrior, returning with the spoils of battle. Or a hunter, with a fresh kill to feed the tribe. Or something else as dorky and embarrassing that she’d never say out loud to _anyone._

Handing it over to Anne had felt even better, the look on her friend’s face enough to melt her prepubescent heart. Gratitude. Happiness.

Love.

Maybe not the kind of love they had now, but love nonetheless, pure and simple.

In that moment, she’d felt powerful, and she’d felt loved. If there was any combination better than that, she had yet to experience it.

The blonde felt her lips twitch up at the memory, an involuntary gesture. Establishing her dominance over the school’s hierarchy had been a slow, laborious process, but that day in particular had been one of her crowning achievements. She’d exercised her strength, in words if not physically, and Sally had kept a wide berth from her and her friends ever since. Soon after that, with a few more such incidents to help build her reputation and a lot of help from her parent’s money, every kid in the school wanted to get in good with her.

Or at least, they knew not to mess with her.

That was almost as good.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean Anne and Marcy were entirely safe from bullies. There were always idiots looking for a cheap laugh at the expense of someone weaker than them, like that flunkie, Maggie. Still, a quick word or pointed glare was usually enough to make them back down whenever she arrived on the scene to save the day.

Even morons like them knew better than to risk her wrath.

None of that changed the fact that Sasha didn’t have a _revenge-face,_ or whatever Anne had called it!

“I don’t have a _revenge-face.”_ The blonde insisted, feeling oddly piqued at the suggestion.

Anne frowned, rather petulantly in Sasha’s opinion. “Yeah, you totally _do!_ It’s like…”

Trailing off, Anne’s face suddenly screwed up, features pinched and contorted in a way that made her look like she was in extreme pain. Sasha would’ve laughed if she didn’t feel so insulted.

The blonde crossed her arms, fixing the other girl with a stern look. “Okay, first of all, you look constipated. Second, I do _not_ look like that. I mean-I _didn’t_ look like that. Never in my life have I looked like that, and I _never. Will.”_

Anne gave up her attempt at demonstration, actually starting to _pout_ at her words. _“You do!”_ She whined.

Sasha wasn’t swayed. “No. I don’t. You’re just seeing things.”

Like a switch had been flicked, Anne’s demeanor seemed to change. She sat up, hands resting lightly against the ground. Her legs pulled in tighter towards herself, catching against Sasha’s thighs in a way that stole her focus for just a moment before it was grabbed by Anne’s eyes narrowing interrogatively.

“...You’re doing that thing, aren’t you?” The other girl accused, baffling Sasha.

“What?” Was all she could say in response.

The brunette frowned in a way that somehow managed to convey annoyance, petulance and _disappointment_ all at once. Sasha’s stomach twisted…

“That thing!” Anne shouted, waving her arms in the air pointedly, as though that was somehow supposed to be enough to make her understand what on Earth she was talking about. “You know what I mean! The thing where _you_ do something _weird,_ and _I_ call you out on it, and then _you_ make it seem like _I’m_ just acting crazy for no reason! That thing!” She settled back down, arms crossing loosely as she fixed Sasha with a reproachful frown. “That’s not a very nice thing to do, Sash.”

_That’s not a very nice thing to do, Sash._ The words burned into Sasha’s brain, and she ground her teeth at the way her girlfriend _lectured her,_ like she was some stupid toddler who wouldn’t share a toy. She’d been doing that a lot recently. Her and Marcy. Always tone-policing her every word, always getting on her back over absolutely _nothing._ They’d both gotten so _sensitive_ since they’d come to this dumb world. That sort of thing had stopped being cute about… well, actually it was never cute. Just _irritating._

Normally, by which she meant _back on Earth,_ this would be the point where she’d put her foot down. She’d tell Anne off for her ridiculous nitpicking, and that would be it. No fighting. No arguing. Anne would apologize, and everything would be fine again.

This was Amphibia though, and on Amphibia, Sasha had to follow a new set of rules if she wanted to keep her relationships intact. Anne and Marcy could say whatever they wanted to her, and she just had to grin and bear it, or else there would be _consequences._ It was far from ideal, but it was all she could do if she wanted to keep them for now. Things would change, eventually…

But for the moment, she had a situation to deal with.

Sasha might not have been able to tell Anne off like she wanted to, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t punish her in _other_ ways…

A slow smirk overtook her face. Sasha slowly inched her hands towards the other girl as she leaned in. “Not very nice, huh? I’ll show you _not very nice!”_

Before the last word even left her lips, the blonde’s hands shot out, digging into Anne’s ribs and making her squeal as she started to tickle the other girl. Immediately, Anne’s upper half pitched forward, shrieking giggles escaping her mouth as she fruitlessly fought to pry Sasha’s fingers from her sides. 

_“N-no!_ _S-saha-ha-ha-sha, st-ah-op!”_ Whatever else she might’ve had to say was lost as the brunette squeezed her eyes shut, shaking and writhing helplessly under Sasha’s assault. In her attempt to fold in on herself, Anne’s legs constricted pleasantly against Sasha’s lap. An unexpected bonus, but far from an unwelcome one as Sasha felt a bolt of warmth run up her spine in addition to the satisfaction she got from watching her girlfriend crumble like a poorly-made sand castle.

Not only was this a _much more_ enjoyable way of resolving the situation than chewing her out, it also handily distracted Anne from her entirely unwarranted disapproval.

A win-win if Sasha had ever heard of one!

Finally, in an act of supreme mercy, Sasha let up. Anne gasped for breath, a hand coming up to wipe away the tears growing at the corners of her eyes. Sasha’s enjoyment of the situation only grew as the other girl panted harshly, able to feel her shivers through her legs.

Anne caught her eye, pulling in one last, deep breath before she spoke, pointing at Sasha. _“You.”_ She declared dramatically, a smile starting to tug at her lips. “Are _such_ a bully!” 

Sasha had a snarky _don’t you know it’s rude to point?_ prepared, but it died on her lips as her mind caught up with her girlfriend’s words. _A bully…_ suddenly, Sasha was transported back to Toad Tower, and that _stupid,_ pink squeaky toy of a frog. She felt anger build up in her throat at the memory, burning tightly in her chest. Anger, and something else...

_‘A bully…’_

“Sasha?”

Breathing deeply through her nose in an attempt to soothe her frenzied emotions, Sasha realized her nails were digging into her palms. She released her grip, focusing on Anne in front of her. Anne’s deep, brown eyes were wide in obvious concern...

_‘...Why?’_

“What?” She snapped.

It wasn’t enough to make the other girl _stop looking at her like that._ “...Are you thinking about the tower?”

Sasha’s heart skipped a beat. _“Why.”_ She began curtly. “Would you think that I’m thinking about _that?”_

_‘Let it go, just let it go, Anne…’_

She didn’t. _Of_ _course_ she didn’t.

Anne kept on looking at her, still so _worried,_ so _concerned._ “Cuz I think about it too. A lot…”

A disgruntled sigh escaped Sasha’s mouth. Nothing more. What was there to say?

“Do you… do you wanna talk about it?” Unfortunately, Anne didn’t seem to feel the same way.

“No.”

It was a clipped response, but it was all she felt the need to give. She’d already built up enough regret in the last few weeks.

The last thing she wanted to do was revisit old hurts.

“Okay…” Anne nodded quickly, and for a moment, Sasha couldn’t help but think that _she_ was glad to avoid the topic as well... “We can do it with Marcy sometime. It’ll probably be a good idea to have her with us anyway. She’s good at… calming us down.” ...Or maybe she wasn’t.

Because _of course_ she wanted to talk about it. And with _Marcy_ for back up as well...

Of course.

“Fine.” Sasha agreed tersely, more out of a worming need to _stop talking about this_ than any true desire to actually follow through with what Anne was suggesting. She’d be perfectly happy to go the rest of her life not thinking about that night ever again.

For about a minute after that, there was silence. Sasha didn’t really know what to say at that point, didn’t have any smart comment or wisecrack to salvage the situation.

She was tired.

“Soooooo…” Anne spoke up out of nowhere, almost startling the blonde. “I’ve been holding onto all your stuff for you!”

Well. _That_ was a clumsy way to change the subject.

Even still, Sasha couldn’t help but be grateful for it. “Oh, really?” A part of her _had_ been wondering where her things had gone. Her armor, her sword, her _phone…_ When she’d been captured, she’d woken up in her cell with just her under-armor clothing, her tunic and pants. It was jarring, having been so used to the comforting weight of her chestplate, her protective shell against this horrible world…

She’d honestly felt naked without it.

“Yeah! Don’t be mad, but I got into your phone too. Good thing you didn’t change your password since we were back on Earth…” Anne tilted her head curiously, a funny little smile on her face. “Why were you watching _Suspicion Island?_ I didn’t even know you _liked_ that show!”

Sasha had no time to be annoyed by Anne going through her phone before she was groaning at the sudden memories of Grime and that _stupid_ show. “Uuuggh! It wasn’t _me,_ it was _Grime._ I made the mistake of letting him use my phone to try and cheer him up, and he got completely addicted! Every day, he would just sit around, drinking that gross _grog-stuff_ and eating those dumb _beetle-chip-things,_ just binging the whole thing, season after season! And I thought _we_ got bad on movie nights…”

“Wait wait wait.” Anne held up her hands, confusion plain on her face. “You're talking about _Captain_ Grime, right? _Big-bad-rebel-leader_ Grime? _Tried-to-feed-my-friend-to-a-plant_ Grime? _That_ Grime?”

Sasha nodded, resisting the urge to defend her captain at Anne’s incredulous tone. “Yeah, what of it?”

_“Oookaaaay.”_ Anne still didn’t look like she was totally ready to believe it, but Sasha honestly didn’t care anymore. She’d just gotten an _idea…_

“So… since I haven’t watched it yet, maybe we could watch it together some time? I know you were super pumped for the new season…” The blonde fought hard to keep her slowly building excitement out of her voice, head already dancing with fantasies of putting her arm around the other girl as Anne snuggled into her side while they half-watched her garbage little show, more interested in each other than the show...

Honestly, any opportunity to cuddle up with Anne, Marcy, or ideally _both_ was more than welcome, even if it meant suffering through trash tv.

It would be worth it.

“Oooh…” Anne rubbed at the back of her neck, teeth exposed in worry, and Sasha already didn’t like where this was going… “Actually, I already watched the new season with the Plantars, like, months ago. Funny story really, we ended up having this big, wacky adventure after Hop Pop… you know what? I’ll tell you the whole thing sometime!”

Huh.

As if she’d needed another reason to despise those slimy frogs.

“Oh…”

Somehow, the simple exhale managed to contain every last ounce of the disappointment she felt, no matter how much Sasha wished it hadn’t.

And then Anne got another one of those _worried_ looks, and Sasha _really_ wished she’d stayed quiet.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t watch it again with you!” Anne tried to assuage, rather unsuccessfully in Sasha’s opinion. “There’s usually a bunch of stuff you miss the first time around anyway! Oh, and when we finish an episode you can tell me your thoughts on it, and I can be quietly smug because I already have all the answers!” She grinned, clearly having convinced herself at the very least. “We can get Marcy to watch it too! It’ll be _so_ much fun!”

“Don’t patronize me…” Sasha snapped. Not that she was truly upset or anything. It was a dumb show anyway.

Anne gave her a mischievous smile. _“We can cuddle while we watch…”_ She sing-songed eagerly, shoulders dancing in emphasis.

_‘..Dang it.’_

“Maybe.” Sasha appended sullenly. “If I feel like it.” She continued, and meant it, surprising herself.

She _did_ like cuddles…

...She really was pathetic, wasn’t she?

_“Only if I feel like it.”_ Sasha stressed, just to feel like she held some level of control over the situation. 

“Sure thing, Sash.” Anne smiled, in a way that made Sasha feel like she had _no control at all._

“...Want me to tell you about my time with the toads?” The blonde blurted suddenly, latching onto the first thing that came to mind to distract her from her increasing feelings of helplessness before her girlfriend’s easy smile. 

It wasn’t like it was the _worst_ idea in the world. Anne and Marcy had told her plenty about all the things they’d done. Why couldn’t she share something of her own? She could go on epic adventures too!

She wasn’t _always_ just struggling to survive…

“Sure!” Anne perked up, leaning in with an eager grin and an unreadable look in her eye that made Sasha shift despite herself. “That sounds awesome! There’s just one thing I gotta do first...” The grin turned wicked. _“Revenge!”_

Sasha’s eye caught the movement of Anne’s arms just as the other girl lunged forward, too late to stop fingers from digging into her sides through her tunic.

Releasing an embarrassingly high-pitched screech, Sasha squirmed against Anne’s touch for just a second before instinct kicked it. _‘Nuh uh. This isn’t gonna happen.’_

Like heat-seeking missiles, Sasha’s hands struck down, easily grabbing hold of Anne’s wrists and wrenching them away from her ribs. For a moment, they struggled, grunting as Anne tried to break free, and Sasha absolutely refused to let her. Finally, she grew tired of the battle, loosening her grip just long enough for the other girl’s hands to push forward before she tightened it again, pulling them in until they were pinned against her stomach.

Normally, that would be a horrible tactical error in a duel such as this, but Sasha had pinned Anne’s hands in such a way that her girlfriend couldn’t do much more but wriggle her fingers slightly. It still tickled somewhat, but her tunic managed to dull the feeling.

_“Leeet goooooo!”_ Anne whined, having the audacity to glare at Sasha like _she_ was the aggressor here, the absolute _brat._

“Guess you shouldn’t have done that, huh, _Anne?”_ Sasha gloated, basking in her small-but-highly-enjoyable victory. Then Anne’s expression changed, from petulance, to _surprise._

The brunette’s fingers, previously wiggling like little worms against her stomach in their desperation to inflict torturous laughter, slowed down. Then, they started to pat, like they were searching for something. Or _feeling_ for something...

Sasha grinned.

Anne’s face grew red as she glanced down to her trapped hands, before tilting her head back up to make eye contact. “So… you-you’ve been… you’ve been _working out,_ huh?” The other girl giggled weakly to punctuate her sentence, like she was trying to play the whole thing off as a joke. All the while, her exploring digits continued to poke and prod at Sasha’s abs in a distinctly unsubtle manner, like she was still trying to convince herself they were real.

Sasha’s grin widened. She raised an eyebrow for good measure. “Impressed?”

She really couldn’t blame her. The blonde had always been in good shape, but her training regimen had propelled her to all-new heights of fitness and athletic ability. All the girls in her cheerleading squad would be _so_ jealous.

Her girlfriend blushed harder, breaking their mutual gaze to stare off at what was no doubt a very interesting stone in the wall next to them. “Shut… _shut up!”_

In yet another act of mercy, and quite kindly of her considering Anne’s brazen attack, Sasha decided to let her off the hook. After all, she could hardly blame the other girl for being so impressed by her perfect abs. She _was_ a very impressive specimen to be sure. Anyone else would’ve done the exact same thing in her position, though they obviously would’ve been laid out flat in seconds if they tried.

“Are you gonna give it up now?” Sasha questioned lazily, enjoying the way Anne started to struggle once more at the mention of surrender.

“Let go!” Anne complained, tugging uselessly, still blushing even though she’d seemingly broken free from her daze.

“Uh uh uh.” Sasha admonished with a smirk. “Be polite. Say _please.”_

She thought about making Anne apologize as well, but she decided against it. Let it never be said that Sasha wasn’t a _very_ merciful girlfriend...

“You’re a jerk!”

“That doesn’t sound like _please…”_

Finally, the struggles ceased. “Fine.” Anne grumbled petulantly, still refusing to look at her. She took a deep breath… “Will you _please_ let go of my hands?”

Sasha did just that, half-tensed for another betrayal as Anne pulled her hands away. When none came, she grinned. “See? Wasn’t that _so much easier_ than trying to fight?”

_‘If only she’d realized that sooner…’_

Anne gave her a half-hearted glare, faint remnants of her embarrassment still coloring her cheeks. “You are _way_ too smug right now.”

“Considering how you couldn’t stop _fondling me_ a minute ago, I’d say I’m just the right amount of smug.” So maybe Anne wasn’t _quite_ off the hook yet. It was just such great ammunition...

The blush returned full force.

_“Sasha!”_ Anne cried, mortified.

“What?” Sasha snickered. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

“Shut up!” Anne crossed her arms, pouting at her childishly.

Honestly, Sasha could’ve kept on teasing for hours and been completely satisfied. But she knew there was only so much Anne could take, and she _did_ say she’d talk about the toads…

“Okay, I’m done. Honest.” She smiled innocently at Anne’s suspicious glance. “Well? Do you wanna hear about my adventures or what?”

Finally, her girlfriend softened. “Okay…” She murmured. Then, she managed a smirk. “Let’s hear it, oh great and glorious storyteller! Your eager audience awaits you!”

“Dramatic much?” Sasha chuckled, raising an eyebrow when that only got an incredulous look from the other girl. “What? Actually, whatever, let’s get this show on the road before you have to leave again…”

Putting aside whatever she’d been thinking to make _that_ face, Anne nodded her agreement, shifting and wriggling for a more comfortable position as she leaned back on her arms once again. Sasha pointedly refused to acknowledge the way Anne’s legs rubbed against her lap, needing herself to be fully confident and in-control so she could dazzle and impress the other girl with how awesome she was.

When she was done, she looked at Sasha expectantly, and the blonde immediately pulled up in her memory one of the more notable bits from her time at Toad Tower. “So, did you know that toads go on ritual hunting expeditions to prove their skill and bravery against dangerous predators?”

“Huh, I never heard Marcy mention anything like… wait, are you saying…”

“Yep.” Sasha smirked as she recalled the times she’d gone with them. “I was learning how to use a sword, so Grime decided I could use a bit more _hands-on experience._ I was amazing, of course, but I’m getting ahead of myself…”

And so, Sasha regaled her girlfriend with tales of her exploits for the rest of her visit.

Needless to say, Anne was _very_ impressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my [Tumblr](https://thecrusadercomrade.tumblr.com/) to keep up with progress on all of my fics, interact with me, and see extra content related to my writing, such as deleted scenes!
> 
> 1\. Again, this is 6.6k words, and it took a hell of a long time to make, so I really hope you all enjoyed it! If not, well... I guess there's not much I can do about that. You're a free person with your own thoughts and opinions. You don't have to like this if you don't want. I really hope you did, though!
> 
> 2\. Would you believe that Toady is my first time writing a male POV in a fanfic? I've never done that before. It was actually jarring for me going through the google document and seeing so many "he's" instead of "she's." It doesn't help that the three main characters of this are all girls. Harold was the only guy character directly in the story until now. Just wanted to share that with you guys!


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